Breckenridge’s International Snow Sculpture Championship of 2018

Hello everyone!! Some of you may know that my birthday was a couple of Saturday’s ago! I kind of wanted to get out of the house and do something fun….maternity leave has been great but sometimes you just need a change of scenery! I was happily surprised to find out that on my actual birthday, not only could I visit the Ice Castle in Dillon, CO, but I would also be able to catch the tail end of the International Snow Sculpture Championship in Breckenridge!

We made a day trip of it and took ourselves and our new little baby to the frosty 23 degrees of Breckenridge to celebrate my 31st!

And to answer your question, yes, I was a frozen popsicle for 65% of the time. The 35% of time that I was not a popsicle was spent in a restaurant. So I guess you could say 100% of my time outdoors was spent as a frozen popsicle.

I will say that my little baby was snug as a bug in her little carrier though!

The International Snow Sculpture Championship is a couple of weeks long every January. Teams of four come from around the world to carve their designs from huge blocks of packed snow. Sculpting takes place over several days – as long as the designs don’t crumble before they’re finished! Team members are not allowed to use power tools, only hand tools! Hand tools can range from chicken wire to a potato peeler, which I find amazing! There is no internal support in any of the sculptures, which is pretty hard to believe when you see them up close!

Each of the teams submit their designs and the interpretation of the sculptures months prior to the event. As you will see in some of the pictures, each sculpture has a banner displaying the name of the sculpture, the country that the team is from, as well as a brief interpretation of the meaning behind the sculpture.

Judging takes place the last Friday of competition, and the sculptures stay in place for the rest of the weekend (sun willing!). Even though it was super cold we had a great time walking around and looking at the sculptures! Breckenridge is pretty much a cool destination year round, but I super suggest trying to vacation here while the festival is going on!

Tips:

Just know and understand that unless you are staying here, parking is atrocious. We have had luck parking off the Main Street on the east side of Main Street.
Definitely come dressed for the weather!
If you are planning to make a trip during this event, be sure to book your hotel in advance, as they are often booked during this time
Consider staying in one of the surrounding towns, such as Frisco or Dillon, but again, be sure to book in advance!
Always check the weather before coming. If you are coming from Fairplay you will have to go over a 2 lane mountain pass, and you will want to consider that when planning your drive

The sculpture in the above picture was actually a jungle gym for the kids!

First Place: Mongolia’s “The Secret”, which also won the People’s Choice Award! It represents the mystery of women, and the secrets that they keep!

Second Place and Kid’s Choice Award: China’s “The Thinker”. This one was really cool all the way around! It represents human thought being a necessary part of evolution.

Third place: Team USA – Wisconsin “A Dance Devine”

Artists Choice Award: Team Mongolia’s “Time”

Below are the rest of the sculptures that were still standing when I visited:

The below sculpture was by Team Breckenridge, and it was my favorite! I loved the way they portrayed the scene above and below water!

The below picture also shows the failure that can happen in this competition! You can see from the banner that the design was pretty ambitious! Unfortunately the design crumbled before it was finished. I think it would have placed for sure though if it had been completed!

This was a super cool event we got to see and is one of the many reasons I love living in Colorado! For those of you who are skiers out there, I super suggest planning a trip up to Breckenridge during this event! Don’t let kids slow you down either, as you can see in the below picture, a baby carrier does wonders and kept my 2 month old super warm and content!