The Youth Competition began yesterday, Monday, March 13. Twenty one young carvers, Jr High to High School age arrived  at the Ice Park ready to try their hand at sculpting. Jim Warner, retired carver as well as a retired paramedic, is the mentor for this next generation of artists.

The first thing on the agenda was a meeting about what to expect while outside carving as well as a safety meeting. Jim stressed that the number one most important thing is staying warm, especially with the temperatures expecting to go lower this week.  Next, Jim introduced all the tools the carvers would be using and the do’s and do not’s for each, Another safety rule he stressed was always have two hands on the tool.

For this year’s competition, there are 20 teams of two carvers each and a single carver. For some of them, this is their fourth year carving, They will be carving a single block of ice 3′ x 4′ in size and weighing approximately 2130 pounds. They will be working for three days from 10am-5;30pm. The competition will end Thursday and the award ceremony will be Friday evening,.

The day ended with each team projecting their small sketch onto a large piece of paper the size of their block of ice and going to the competition location to select each of their sites.

Tuesday Morning: The competition site was rather chaotic to say the least. Each team was in position at their block of ice. Some of the teammates were in the process of smoothing their blocks while other teams were ironing their sketches onto their blocks. Once this is complete, they can begin to carve.

Stay tuned, These budding artists next will begin the imperative step toward their masterpieces.