Snow sculpture competition 2009

Author: Jamie Studwell

This weekend, giant blocks of solid winter fell prey to the creative instincts of Middlebury students in the Snow Sculpting Contest. The results? Some very creative, detailed pieces and some piles of mangled snow.

1st place: "Sketch-Cullough." (photo a.) As we walked past the snow sculptures this weekend my mom, who was visiting, said to me, "Wow, that one is really beautiful." She then whispered awkwardly, "but it looks a bit like an orgy!" She was referring to the work of Alex Benepe '09 & co., whose snow block depicts a "Sketch-Cullough" dance through overlapping snow bodies on the four sides of their snow block. The resemblance to an actual McCullough Social Space Saturday dance was uncanny to students, though Benepe said that a parent walking by was able to pass it off as a "group hug" to her inquisitive kid. Benepe said that the piece was in homage to the grand reopening of the McCullough Social Space.

2nd place: "The Shark." (b.) The self-titled Team Christine and the B1N Boys wanted to do something that would pop out, so they created a giant shark head coming out of the snow. It had a remarkable amount of detail in the curves of its head, the flaring nostrils, gills and two rows of teeth as big as my hand. The major carving was done earlier on, but on the final day the boys could be found using an iPhone to look up pictures of sharks to get the details right. Though reminiscent of last year's wolf head, this sculpture impressively made the impact the sculptors wanted. Viewed from the side, "The Shark" struck a menacing pose - until an adorable little girl climbed in through the back and started playing inside the shark's cavernous mouth.

3rd place: "Love." (c.) This year, Andrew Waxman '10, Ekow Edzie '10 and Byron Roth '10 created a snow replica of the red "LOVE" statue that stands outside the Kevin P. Mahaney '84 Center for the Arts. Though not very original, it was well executed, its precision denoting an impressive three days of time and effort.

"Toad's DeathTrip" deserves honorable mention for the sculptors' creative use of food coloring. This snow slide and accompanying stairs were dyed an array of colors, making it stand out garishly against the other sculptures. Carved into it were the words "Psychedelic" and "Toad's DeathTrip."

The rest of the pieces were left unfinished (or undecipherable), but some showed promise that they could have been interesting if completed. The Chatty Cathys began work on a house with a hollow tunnel going through it, but left it looking like a cartoon doghouse. A team including Jane Yoon '10 began work on a snow castle and Mario Ariza '09, of last year's wolf head, partially created a whale. Alex Consalvo '09, who replaced a last-minute dropout on the VACA team, carved semi-circles into his block and although something was obviously started, it was unclear what the team intended their sculpture to be.