A team of British stone carvers is flying off to America on 23 January to take part in the international snow carving contest held each year at a town called Breckenridge in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, which is a ski resort at this time of year.

The team is Carrie Horwood of Cat’s Eye Carving, Marie-Louise Bolland, Ollie Anally and Ed Francis.

Carrie initiated and runs the Gloucester Stone Festival and says she anticipates the Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships will be similar but at temperatures down to -20ºC. And the sculptures cannot be auctioned off afterwards, either, because they will melt.

They had to submit a design to be accepted into the competition. Ollie sent several and it was one by  Marie-Louise of dragons fighting on top of a tower that was accepted.

You can follow the British team’s progress on Twitter by using  #SnowCarving and @CarrieHorwood. They promise plenty of posts.

There will also no doubt be news posted on the competition’s website bit.ly/Snow-Carving.