2013 Ice Alaska - single block competition is complete

It was just cold this weekend after nice temperatures in the afternoons last week.  But despite the cold, JW and I went to the ice park to see the completed sculptures.  They are totally absolutely amazing and hopefully Wednesday it will be warm enough in the evening to stop back by and see them lit up.  (problem is, it is staying light later so that means I will have to stay awake a little later too).

JW frequently asks me where my gloves are - his hands get so cold that he can't understand how I can stay warm without gloves.

A closer look at this red chunk inside the block of ice and it looks like a chunk of meat.

Come here girl.

The above looks like something that belongs in the Japanese garden I visited with alexshuman a couple of years ago.

This salmon now has teeth made of ice - where earlier in the week had been an empty mouth.

The diamond shaped chunks of ice are now super-glued (with water) to the pointed shafts on the right side of "Nautilus".

Because the artists get extra points for using all of the ice, the artists who created Nautilus decorated the edge of their site with ice crystals.

Memories of a harp - I never would have imagined that the lump of ice that the girl was standing on would or even could be turned in to a fish.

The finished horse and rider but unfortunately snow that fell on Saturday kind of covered up the "snow" ice print on the front right flank of the horse.

I was really glad this artist took the time to document what a trumpet curve is because we had no idea.

If you look closely in the big round ball in the center of the above picture you can see the image of an igloo.

Topless Dancing - a banana and carrot attracting attention to the Fairbanks Food Bank.

And here it is - the Northern Light Switch.

Fire and water

Meteor - final destination, above, got 1st place in the abstract category and also got the Artist's choice award.

We walked over to where the multi-block competition will be - those carvings started at 9 a.m. this morning (Sunday, March 3).  There are 20 multi-block sites so at 10 blocks per site that is at least 200 blocks of ice waiting to be moved into location.

 The maze with the serpent in the middle.

Throughout the park there are various smaller blocks of ice that artists are now starting to carve.  Above are two guys from China who have selected a piece of ice near the exit and have started planning on what to carve.

Above are the big slides that will be filled with kids over spring break - we were there at around 11 a.m. and people up here don't get moving around too early in the mornings on the weekend - normally it is after noon before you see many people.

After we left the park, we stopped to look at the lake where they get the ice from.  And there are a few huge blocks sticking out from the lake.

Although I didn't really feel too cold as we walked through the park for an hour, my face looked kind of frozen when I saw it back in the truck.  It was only about 2 degrees and it is a good thing we didn't stay out any longer as I didn't even think of the possibility of frostbite.

From the park we went and bought a few groceries then stopped at Taco Azteca for a quick lunch before going home to try to get a few things done.  I can hardly wait to get back to the park to check out the multi-blocks.