The work was gruelling, but Morton Burke and his Alberta Team returned from a U.S. snow sculpture competition with “memories that will last a lifetime.”
Burke, of the Sundre area, and Will Truchon and Christian Denis, both of Edmonton, created a 16-foot statue of North America’s four largest animals — a big-horn sheep, moose, bear and bison at the competition in Stillwater, Minn. from Jan. 18-21.
With the world’s best snow sculptors plying their talents, the competition was tough, admitted Burke. While the Alberta Team’s sculpture wasn’t judged in the Top 3, he said it was a huge hit with the public, especially kids, who liked identifying the animals.
Burke’s team had to sculpt through two nights, when it was colder than the balmy daytime temperatures. The carvers worked on all four animals simultaneously so they would be finished to the same degree when “tools down” was called.
The three veteran Albertan sculptors, who hadn’t worked together before, are looking forward to teaming up again “to create beautiful, although impermanent, sculptures for the public to enjoy as long as they last.”