ice castles and imagination

_{magic ice cave}

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In my last post, ice ice baby, a few people asked me about my "ice cave" photo.

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_{snow ram}

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Since I've always been fond of those particular photos, despite their marginal quality, I thought I might create a post with more of the series.

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_{three headed dragon}

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Despite the fact that I only had a crappy Canon point and shoot camera with a cheap flash, some of the photos came out pretty awesome.

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_{ice demons}

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Some of the hues that you see are from colored spotlights in the display, however intense editing on my part did occur in order to highlight the fantastical..

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_aliens

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...and somewhat cheesy amateurish imagery you see here.

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_{crimson night owl}

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These photos were actually taken at an event five years past - the Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships

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_{gremlin attack}

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an event that's held every winter in the famous ski resort city of Breckenridge, Colorado.

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_prehistoric

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Snow/Ice Sculpture Artists from all over the world come to compete in this exhibit, which is free to the public.

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_centipede

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The contestants use only blocks of snow and hand tools to create a variety of giant sculptures which are then judged on specific criteria for the art.

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_planets

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The year I attended, the exhibit also included a man-made ice fort, with various lighted ice formations meant to lure an intrepid amateur photographer into paying the $12 entrance fee.

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_melt

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Granted I heard the fort took 3 days and tons of water to create.

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_{horses at the gate}

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The real treat however was outside the fort, where water had cascaded and froze into natural formations.

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_{outer wall of fortress}

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There are apparently a sizable number of both snow sculpture contests and ice castle attractions all over the world,

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_{polar haze}

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which much to my chagrin are not only better in quality, but much more extensive, for about the same cost.

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_{ice yeti}

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Below is a Youtube blurb about the Breckenridge Festival, with a poor quality aerial view of the 2014 ice fort (6:08 in video) that I wandered through.

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Puny in comparison to most ice castles, really.

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_monument

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At the time, I thought the car sized snow sculptures at Breckenridge to be quite impressive,

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_dicsicles

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but a google search found some simply incredible sprawling house sized wonders elsewhere.

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_{pagan ritual}

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See the articles listed below for some sensational photos!

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articles of interest:

breathtaking sculptures
not the most well-written piece, but the photos are amaze-balls!!

ice and snow festivals around the world
look at all of these!!!

icecastles
a main website that lists some of the north american sites

ice castles colorado
for comparison to some of my photos

lake geneva ice castles
a popular chicago attraction

ice climbing
what better way to see ice but up close and personal

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_kings