A temporary, yet spectacular art show is on display in the streets of Breckenridge, but the medium used by all the artists is the same: snow.
Sculptors have finished up their creations for this year’s International Snow Sculpture Championships in Breckenridge – and they’re much more impressive than the average snowman.
Teams work nonstop for 94 hours to carve and sculpt works of art out of 25-ton, 12-foot tall blocks of snow. That means working even in the arctic blast temperatures from the past weekend.


“I think it was -8 degrees or so whenever we got to the blocks, and this morning, woke up, got to the parking lot to a balmy -16 degrees,” joked Tim West of Team Breckenridge, talking about the second day of carving. “The cold snap is real, I can tell you that. It’s very challenging at those temperatures.”
In the competition, there are a total of twelve teams. Two are from Wisconsin and one is from Breckenridge. The other nine come from around the world – like Argentina, India, Mexico, or South Korea – and they stay with host families in the town during the competition.
“We love to see multiple languages being spoken throughout the week,” Melissa Andrews with the Breckenridge Tourism Office said.
While it may sound surprising that warmer climate countries are competing in a snow event, Andrews said these competitors are artists through and through.
“They are sculpting in various materials, be that snow, sand or other wood and similar sculpting materials throughout the year,” she said. “So they actually have some really cool environments in which they can practice.”
The teams cannot use any kind of power tools. Andrews said she has seen teams with chicken wire, pickle forks and more. Some other teams, like West’s team, invent their own hand tools and get creative with what they can use.

“We use saws from 12 inches to, we have a saw that is seven feet long,” West said. “We use plane tools that could be like a cheese grater, all the way up to something that has like a nail plate on it.”
After teams are done carving, five judges from the art community will grade each piece based on technical skill, creativity and expressive impact. Then they will award gold, silver and bronze medals. The artists from every team will also pick an artists’ choice, and visitors can vote on a people’s choice. Team Mexico took home the gold last year.

“They're looking at what they have accomplished in terms of being able to utilize snow in ways that are unexpected and surprising and impressive,” Andrews said, “as well as what story and what message they are telling, and what is that expression that they have brought to the viewers.”
The town has hosted the competition for more than three decades. Andrews loves how it brings everyone together.
“It is an amazing display of camaraderie and community in this global network of snow lovers,” she said. “Our Coloradans know and love this event, and they're coming out to see really such amazing feats of snow.”
This competition means a lot to West. When he moved to Breckenridge 20 years ago, he never had any experience crafting with snow. But a few years later, he heard of a competition in town called the Breck Snowflake Challenge – an event made by pro snow sculptors on Team Breckenridge that were looking to pass the torch to new team members. West ended up placing second in the competition, and he was asked to join the team.

“This was just a complete pastime, and now has become a passion,” he said. “The snow and the winter festival atmosphere, it gets in your blood. And so I knew right away when I moved here, this was just something I had to be involved in.”

This year, his team made a sculpture called “Peak Performance.” It’s a mixed design featuring a geometric, upside-down pyramid on one side and a lifelike skier going down a mountain on the other.
Even though his main job is running a fly fishing outfitter retail shop in town, West has been competing with Team Breckenridge now for 15 years. The team has been to competitions in Japan, Italy, France and other areas of the world. But he said it’s special to have an event like this in his backyard.
“You cannot be a part of this town, a community member, and not just fall in love instantly with this event,” he said. “It is the epitome of Breckenridge in my mind.”
Sculptures will be on display through next Wednesday. Visitors who come on Saturday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. will need to make a free reservation online in order to control crowds.