And now, I present: Ice!!

The BP World Ice Carving event has come and gone and it’s time for me to post some pictures of the ice carvings. It was quite the event with 10’s of thousands of visitors this year but since it’s likely we’ll loose the land the event is hosted on, kind of subdued for the hundreds of volunteers like myself that know the situation. The railroad has rights to the land we sit on and have been trying to push us off for 5-6 years, but to their credit have given us breaks on the rental, keep pushing the drop dead date into the future, and try to work with us. They have a mandate to maximize income from any lands they control (they don’t own it, the people do) but have been asking twice what it’s worth, based on assessments, for 3 years now. Anyway, the CEO told me 15 minutes ago that he’s made an offer of $2.25 million for the land. That’s what the RR is asking, though that is $1 million over one of two assessments. I recommended he get 5 assessments (I was a licensed real estate broker in Oregon), toss out the high & low, average the other three and offer that amount. Don’t think he’s going to do that, but it’s his money.

Anyway, here’s some pictures of the Ice Art we had this year. If you’ve been wishing that you could visit them in person, it’s possible there won’t be a world class ice carving event here next year, or the year after so you may have missed your chance. But then again, if the RR does sell the property to the CEO, we’ll be open again next February.

A couple weeks ago, I wandered around the park and took these pictures for your enjoyment. You can see them and more complete bio’s of the artists at http://www.icealaska.com

I thought I’d take the easy way this time and instead of making a comment on each and every picture, I just pulled them into the blog en mass. You can click on each one for a closer view. I tried to keep the posters describing each competition piece right next to it’s sculpture but that turned out to be a chore so you’ll have to wing it yourselves. Also, some of the sculptures collapsed within hours of the end of the judging but I still took a picture of the jumbled mess. You’ll have to use your imagination on how spectacular the piece was. Or come here next year yourself and enjoy it in person. Well worth the expense if it’s a once in a life time trip. There’s so much for a tourist to do here I often recommend that people stay here for at least two weeks. Like a trip out to Chena Hot Springs in March. Soak in a natural hot spring while watching the Northern lights dance above your head. Can’t be beat.

Kids climb into those holes in those round things and their parents spin them around. Sometimes until they throw up. See how mean parents can be? The sculpture in the background is a kids slide.