Ice Sculpture

[fused]

A very different approach to forming ice sculpture (http://www.alaskaalpineclub.org/IceWall/04-05IceWall1.html).

[Sysiphus]

i really love those photos. have you seen the actual sculpture yourself? must be quite a sight. what happens when it warms up - do they take it apart or let it just melt?

[fritchie]

Some pretty wild pictures, fused. Thanks for putting them up. Maybe Alaska’s a good preview for Mars, Saturn’s moon Titan, solar-orbiting comets and other exotic places. As a scientist as well as a sculptor, I regularly follow the progress of NASA’s and ESA’s (European Space Agency)’s space fleet.

Right now, NASA has had two truckin’ robots on opposite sides of Mars for just over a year, and has found pretty positive evidence for quite a bit of early liquid water in both places. NASA’s orbiters have proved a lot of ice is present at both the north and south poles of Mars, and lightly buried ice may extend about halfway to Mars’ equator. Both NASA photo’s from a year or two ago, and better photo’s from ESA just recently suggest that Mars had a good sized sea or small ocean not far from the equator that froze solid some time ago.

NASA and ESA’s joint Saturn/Titan probe Casini/Huygens has shown that Saturn’s moon Titan probably has rivers and maybe lakes of a sort of liquified natural gas (LNG, methane), and possibly volcanos that spout liquid water that quickly freezes - (not unlike your own Alaska trials)!

The solar system and the universe are quite exciting places to watch.

[JAZ]

It's good to have a sense of adventure and of humor when you live in a place that gets to -60 during the winter. The ice sculptures are cool and the guys who do them are appropriately nuts.
While on the topic, last night another sculptor, a graphic designer and myself were the jury for the first ever ice sculpture contest in Amesbury, where my studio is. Wasn't anything like what you posted. These were the traditional type, chipped out of four foot blocks with chisels and chainsaws. We were given criteria to judge on and so I learned a bit about the differences between ice sculpture and other sculpture. The imagery of most wasn't overly creative, but one guy did a palm tree, which shows he's got a sense of humor since the temps have been in the mid teens - low twentys lately. The first prize, which all three of us agreed on at first sight, was a lighthouse complete with a little wharf with a boat moored to it. The young guy who made it chipped out a hollow where the lens would be and put in a lit votive candle. He got $100 prize for it. The pro that the city had hired to give workshops to help people who wanted to participate gets $250 to $1000 for the ones he does for weddings and restaurants. Not bad for something that he can make in an afternoon and that will melt.
But it's a far cry from the scale and exhuberance of the Alaskan walls you posted. thanks.
JAZ