Ice Sculptures!

Fairbanks is among one the most famous cities in alaska (one of the only cities lol) because it has held the World Ice Championship for over 22 years. People from all around the world come to compete in this event and the whole town comes out to see these artists at work. They build intricate arrangements that seem so delicate they could break at any second. And others build sculptures as tall as 30 feet, Slides big enough for anyone to enjoy and a playground made up entirely of ice.

My friend Will and I had sushi tonight and then headed to the ice field. We were not dressed to be outside I'll say that. It was cold. The park is huge and in this weather made it almost impossible to see the whole thing in one night.

Me as an eskimo! Oh! Sorry, a Native : P they get angry if you call them eskimos. lol

Me freezing in the ice sauna. Basically an ice room with wood benches and a stone steamer. The door was furs...how alaskan? lol
The park also has slides made of ice (obviously), 6 rows and 85 feet of fun! although I still haven't gone on them yet but I hope to do that soon! The slides! They're all lit up with flashing lights and its a crazy sight to see.

The categories of ice sculptures include one block and multi block. A single block looks something like this.

Yeah thats a cougar...made out of ice. Crazy huh?! The amount of detail that goes into all these pieces is amazing. Ice sculpting is no joke. A multi block competitor would create something like this.

This was just one of the many spectacular pieces created. The park was filled with full sized Poseidon vessels decked out (PUN!) with human sized greek gods and goddesses. There were mushrooms taller than me that looked cute enough to sit on. Some statues were at least 30 feet tall with detail that was unbelievable. One piece was big enough for a man to fit inside of and start carving to give his art that POP it needed. Very cool!
Another very impressive display of ice sculpting abilities was the ice maze!

 The ice maze was impressive to say the least. With walls that were taller than me, Will and I managed to find our way out. The walls were lit up with colored lights and it felt like a winter wonderland inside!
The World Ice Championships will be going on all week and I hope to enjoy more of them before I leave for hawaii.
6 More days!! : ) Can't wait.