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Shape shifters: snow sculptors use tools, techniques in work

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Lake Geneva snow sculpting 2013

Snapshots from the 2013 U.S. Nationals Snow Sculpting Competition, part of Winterfest in Lake Geneva, Wis.

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Sculptors craft their blocks of snow using a variety of ready-made tools--and their own creations--at the U.S. National Snow Sculpting Championships in Lake Geneva. Terry Mayer photo.

LAKE GENEVA — There are artists among the team members at the U.S. Nationals Snow Sculpting Championships—people who can stand in front of a cylindrical block of snow and envision the delicate feathers of an angel’s wing taking shape.

Max Dehtiar isn’t among them.

Dehtair, his brother, Luke, and their friend, Ryan Olszowy, are all engineers who make up Team Michigan at the championships. Theirs is, Dehtiar conceded, a different perspective.

“I don’t visualize things as well as a lot of the other artists here,” he said. “I need lots and lots of pictures for reference, for dimensions and measurements. I almost need blueprints for what I want to sculpt.”

Dehtiar’s team, which started working together at the State of Michigan Snow Sculpting Championship at Frankenmuth in 2007, said members have learned by watching other artists over the years, but they still rely heavily on mechanics.

“One of our sculptures was of a rock band, complete with a full drum set,” Dehtiar said. “The drum set was to have a nice, even profile, but to draw it freehand would have been a nightmare.”

So instead, team members created a tool with jigs and teeth that would spin around and form the snow into a perfectly round shape.

Dehtiar said team members do strategize like engineers. During the 2009 championship in Lake Geneva, Team Michigan’s sculpture depicted the remains of a knight who’d met with a dragon. When members heard temperatures were going to rise well above freezing, they carved the detailed elements of their snow sculpture—a skull, shield and rib cage—and buried them in a snow bank near their site. Five minutes before “shovels down,” members pulled the pieces out and set them up, knowing their detail would still be crisp and well defined, thanks to the stint in the snow bank. Their “Dragon’s Den” won first place.

Most of the snow sculptors here craft their own tools or adapt them from something else. Visitors will see artists working with everything from augers to stainless steel ladles.

Many of the sculptors carry tool boxes, but Gary Keeton, of Anchorage, said fellow Team Alaska members have pared down their tools to an essential small box.

“Lots of tools get heavy and the weight gets expensive as luggage when you’re flying across the country to competitions,” Keeton said.

Sometimes artists will look for spare parts to create the perfect tool, said Judy Daub, who mans the main tables inside the Riviera, which overlooks the competition.

Daub keeps track of teams, provides refreshments, hands out name tags, points out bathrooms and the nearest outlets for recharging cell phones. And she answers questions from visiting team members.

“The most common questions?” she mused. “Probably ‘Where’s the hardware store?’ And ‘Where’s the hospital?’”

Winterfest schedule

Feb. 1-2

-- 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., sculpting teams at work, Riviera Park

Feb. 2

-- 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., children’s sculpting, wagon and helicopter rides, tethered hot air balloon rides and sleigh on wheel rides at Riviera Park and lakefront

-- 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Riviera Marketplace featuring food, entertainment, etc., Riviera Ballroom

-- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., free shuttle service from parking at Petco (Wisconsin Highway 50 and Edwards Boulevard) to drop off/pick up at Mill Creek Hotel on Center Street

-- 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., live entertainment, Riviera Ballroom

-- 11 a.m., sculpting ends

-- 11 a.m to 2 p.m., People’s Choice Award voting

-- 3 p.m., U.S. National Snow Sculpting awards presentation, Riviera Ballroom

Feb. 3

-- All day, viewing of finished sculptures, Riviera Park

-- 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Riviera Marketplace, Riviera Ballroom

-- 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., free shuttle service from parking at Petco (Wisconsin Highway 50 and Edwards Boulevard) to drop off/pick up at Mill Creek Hotel on Center Street

-- For more information, call the Geneva Lake Area Chamber of Commerce at (800) 345-1020 or (262) 248-4416 or go online to www.lakegenevawi.com or www.usnationals.org

See more of Winterfest at the CSI website photo gallery.

Catch a video of Team Nebraska's sculpture-in-progress as captured by time lapse photography.