Breckenridge – Tom Day and three friends shoveled and chiseled a massive block of snow into two 10-foot-tall puppies touching paws in a Breckenridge parking lot.
It took nearly 65 hours, Day said Sunday, but it was worth it.
The four dog lovers – who have eight dogs among them – won first place in the 16th annual Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships.
The four sculptors, all from Breckenridge, set out to depict a dog staring at its reflection in a mirror.
“It was cool how they set it up,” said Brandt Bradbury of Cañon City, one of several passers-by who said “Discovery” was their favorite among the 13 sculptures.
“This was definitely a crowd- pleaser,” Day said.
The award was also a first for a Breckenridge team.
Day said he and his crew did not think of their work as manual labor but as fun and unusual winter art.
His team has sculpted snow using nothing but hand tools for more than 16 years.
Day, who sells real estate, said the nonprofit nature of the event makes for a sense of community.
The Switzerland team shared its tools, which were manufactured specifically for snow sculpture, with Day and his friends, who reciprocated.
“If we did this for money, professionals would come here,” Day said. “That would take away the camaraderie.”
Kim DiLallo, town director of communications, said the event began as part of the town’s winter carnival, the Ullr Fest.
This year’s Breckenridge team captain, Rob Neyland, created snow sculptures for the festival in the early 1980s. In 1991, he turned the sculpture show into an international competition.
The second and third place sculptures were made by a team from Switzerland and a team from Germany, respectively.
Switzerland’s piece, “Somersault,” is a graceful rounded shape that looks as if it is about to fall into motion.
Germany’s “Coming Home” is a globe broken in half, with two lovers facing each other inside.
Terri Miller of Colorado Springs said she has been visiting the show since its beginning and noticed something different about the event this year.
“They’re beautiful every year,” Miller said. “But this year the themes have more in-depth meanings and are soul- touching.”
Staff writer Katherine Crowell can be reached at kcrowell@denverpost.com.
