Polycrystals, stellars, spatial dendrites, graupels, columns and needles - all snow crystals thatwent into building the 12ft tall, 20 ton blocks of snow used during the International Snow Sculpture Championships held at Breckenridge.

Long known for bringing diverse cultures together, the fifteen four person teams are drawn from Argentina, Canada, England, Germany, Russia, Mexico, Switzerland and America. These teams express whimsy and philosophy, each having a five day period to carve a sculpture from their block of snow.

These blocks were donated by the Town of Breckenridge Public Works Department. Snow was taken to the event site in Breckenridge and machine blown into blocks. Five to ten 'snow-stompers' then jump-up, jump-down, jump-around until the snow is firmly packed and the carving begins.

Sixty-five hours later, with chainsaws, icepicks, shovels and even toothbrushes, these are some of the resulting sculptures:

Report from Sam Marfleet & Melissa Cannon - Natives Resort Reporters in Keystone

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