The Loveland Fire & Ice Festival's snow sculpting competition is feeling the heat. Surely you've noticed that temperatures have been hotter than normal, pushing festival organizers to shift gears for the annual event.
"We plan as far ahead as we can and have Plans A, B, C, and D, and most of those plans have been thwarted," said Nate Webb, owner of Blazen Illuminations, event organizer for the festival. "We made as much snow as we could in the last two weeks and prayed to God that it wouldn't melt."
Six 20-ton dump trucks have delivered snow to the streets of Downtown Loveland. Webb is keeping a close eye on the piles as they are prepped into blocks for each of the six teams still sculpting in snow. The event, a qualifier for the U.S. National Snow Sculpting Competition, started with 11 teams but due to the snow shortage, five teams will carve ice instead, which Webb joked was "Plan G."
"Doing snow sculpture here in Loveland is a bit tough," he said. "Snow levels are not as high and it melts fast. But the sculptors understand that this is the environment, and sometimes these kinds of challenges actually make it a bit more fun."
Free and open to the public, the Loveland Fire & Ice Festival will be held Feb. 13 & 14, 2015.