Congratulations to Ollie Annaly and his team of British stone carvers for flying the Union Jack again at the Budweiser International Snow Carving Contest in Breckenridge in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA, which is a ski resort at this time of year.
They didn't win, but they did well to be selected as one of the 15 teams taking part. To be selected, teams have to submit drawings of the work they intend to produce and Ollie's submission was considered worthy of inclusion. It is called 'Spiritual Beasts of the North Wind'. The main figure is of a sabre tooth tiger and there is a relief carving of a hunting cave drawing.
The Gold Medal went to Chinese sculptors who produced a piece called 'Mermaid', depicting a mythical underwater scene. Sweden won Silver with '4 (Ever) Wheels Reflection', which had two cars tied together, an expression of both freedom and dependency. Team Mongolia-Erdene won Bronze with 'We are One Family', a piece that reflected the idea of animals co-existing with humans and nature.
The sculptures were produced in 65 hours across five days using hand tools only from 27m3 blocks of snow at temperatures that went down as low as -25oC. They will remain on display at the Riverwalk Center in Breckenridge until Sunday, 5 February (as long as it doesn't get any warmer and they melt). Visit SculptSnow.com for more information and pictures from the event.
With Ollie this year were Maya Martin, Adrian Powell and Stephen Brown.