The Ultimate Carving Contest

What would you do with a 20-ton, 12-foot-tall block of man-made snow? I would build an igloo (my own woman-cave!). Each year in Breckenridge, artists come from all over the world to transform 13 blocks of snow into frozen masterpieces. During the Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championship Jan. 26-31, 13 teams from seven different countries spent 65 hours each sculpting the frozen blocks to create oversized objects that put even your best rendition of Frosty to shame.

As reported by the Summit Daily News:

Gold: Team Lithuania ‘Milite Est Vita’ is a textured sculpture of a gloved hand holding up the ‘V’ sign symbolizing the fragility and temporary nature of victory…every day is a fight.

Silver: Team Canada, Ontario ‘Memories from my Youth,’ an elaborate sculpture of the face of a Japanese princess from one side and a scene depicting her memories of a banzai garden, pagoda and bridge over a brook from the other side.

Bronze: Team Mexico ‘The Altar of Quetzalcoatl,’ a detailed sculpture that represents Quetzalcoatl, the god of life and dead in the Mexican culture, which included the symbol of the sun in his daily rebirth.