Extreme Sledder – 2010 Edmonton Silver Skate

The Cessco Snow Sculpture Competition drew carvers from Africa, Argentina, Mexico and Canada. We had two full days to sculpt our pieces. Extreme Sledder, my piece, tried to capture the speed of Olympic Skeleton racing in a block of snow that was 4ft by 4ft by 8ft tall. It was no coincidence that I selected this subject as the Olympics were going hard at the same time. I had decided to carve the features of one of three sledders’ helmets into my piece. We carved all day on the Friday and then watched Jon Montgomery win the Gold that evening. It was then that I chose his helmet design (a turtle and a thunderbird) to be part of the sculpture. As people walked by the sculpture, many of them recognized the design and made positive comments. Not only did the public like the sculpture, but the judges must have also, as they awarded me second place.

The organizers must have liked the sculpture as they used an image of it on a number of billboards around Edmonton the following year.