coloradoseen 1 2014
DESCRIPTION
An occasional photojournalism magazine. Issue 1, 2014. Ouray Ice Climbing and Breckenridge Snow SculpturesTRANSCRIPT
Colorado Seen01/2014
CLIMBING ICE
ALSO n SNOW SCULPTURES
From the Editor
Baby, it’s cold out there!
And Colorado thrives on the cold.
Get ready for the winter of 2015 by seeing how Colorado celebrated the cold in 2014, at the Ice Festival in Ouray, and the snow-sculpting competition in the winter-sports mecca of Brecken-ridge.
We’ve made a few subtle design changes this year: a new story typeface, a new 5-column format that opens up some flexibility and breathing room in layouts, and slightly bigger dimensions to make use of larger or higher-resolution computer screens.
Our first issue of 2015 is already in the works!
Colorado SeenAn internet image magazine
Editor & PublisherAndrew Piper
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On the cOver:Ben Schuchard, of Fort collins, cO, navigates a monstrous icicle on the chasm wall of the Ouray Ice Park, during the Park’s 2014 Ice Festival.
Your correspondent in the wind and snow at the Ouray Ice Festival.
Photo by Kate Hall
SCULPTING SnOWEvery year in Breckenridge, Colorado, artists from around the world turn12-foot cubes of snow into glistening visions.
heiki ryynänen puts the finishing touches on Northern Sun, Finland’s entry in the snow-sculpture competition
SCULPTING SnOW
Jeff Stoller of colorado finds a restful attitude from which to shape the curves of a sea monster for the sculpture Must Be Using the Wrong Bait, a colorado entry.
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Talk about your process art!
Imagine putting months of thought into designing a sculpture. And then flying thou-sands of miles across the world to a little Colorado mountain town, and spending days (and nights) of hard labor carv-ing your vision out of 20 tons of contrary, fragile, cold stuff.
Only to watch it melt into just another puddle of water within days or weeks (or sometimes only hours).
That is the agony and the ecstasy of the an-nual Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships, held in the winter sports mecca of Breckenridge.
In 2014, fifteen teams from across the chilly regions
Opposite, colorado sculptors Jeff Stoller (standing) and tracey Ducharme (inside the beast) use a scale model to plan their work of art, carved from
a solid 12-foot cube of packed snow.Above, a member of the vermont team cleans up a sharp angle in the outer layer of the sculpture Fugue as judging approaches.
Denver
BrecKenrIDGe
c O L O r A D O
TEXT & PHoToS by AnDY PIPer
At dusk on the day before judging, Garbriela Kulenkampff cuts through the last temporary supporting pillar for Germany’s cantilevered sculpture Apacheta, as team captain Franziska Agrawal (front) and elizabeth thorp make suggestions.
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In the fading light, Altanbayar Odgerel of Mongolia works on top of the sculpture Fight. Mongolia sent two teams to the Breckenridge sculpture competition in 2014.
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In the fading light, Altanbayar Odgerel of Mongolia works on top of the sculpture Fight. Mongolia sent two teams to the Breckenridge sculpture competition in 2014.
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Working through the night and into the glow of dawn, sculptors from France (left) and Lithuania strain to beat the judging deadline of 10 a.m.
of the globe put their hearts and souls and shoul-ders into pro-ducing just such evanescent glory.
With shovels and scrap-ers, saws and lad-ders, and buckets of water for glue, each team wres-tled 12x12x12-foot cubes of packed snow into visions of: the sun, the moon, sea mon-sters, butterflies, dragons and bat-tling horses.
Or just an abstraction of the human spirit, looking ever up-wards.
But as beautiful as they are, the true art in this gallery is not the final sculptures themselves, soon to melt away.
It is the acts of creation them-selves that are worth the view. n
Under a crescent moon, violetta Uboldi of Italy shapes a human form in
the sculpture Looking Up.
After the all-night work, the morning sun
finally brings a touch of warmth, shining
through the Lithuanian sculpture Once Upon A
Time Here Was A Forest. A saw helps shape the
Styrofoam™-like snow.
20
With a sharp-toothed metal scraper, heiki ryynänen of Finland smooths and shapes the surface of the sculpture Northern Sun, as the minute count down to the deadline for judging.
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With a sharp-toothed metal scraper, heiki ryynänen of Finland smooths and shapes the surface of the sculpture Northern Sun, as the minute count down to the deadline for judging.
competition judge and
Denver artist David Griggs
takes notes as he inspects the
vermont team’s entry Fugue.
25
AnD the WInnerS
Were:1St PLAce
WInter FUnBrecKenrIDGe
USAKeith Martin Tim West, Tom Day, Margo Jerkovitz
2nD PLAce APAchetAGerMAnY
Franziska Agrawal, Gabriela
Kulenkampff, Marcus Kösel, Elizabeth
Thorp
3rD PLAce WAnDererWIScOnSIn
USAJeff Shawhan,
Jeffrey olson, James Malkowski, Gregory
brulla
t
tt
the 2015 Breckenridge Budweiser Snow Sculpture competition schedule is:
Stomping WeekJanuary 19-23SculptingJanuary 27-31viewingJanuary 31-February 8
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MUSt Be FIShInG WIth the WrOnG BAItUSA - cOLOrADO
Tracey DuCharme, Jeff Stoller, Kimberly DuCharme Nickerson, Mike Emmerling
FUGUeUSA - verMOnt
Michael Nedell, Adrian Tans,brooke Monte, Alex Dosti
veStIDA De nIt - DreSSeD nIGhtcAtALUnYA (cAtALOnIA, SPAIn)
Lluis Ribalta Coma-Cros, Kike Rocha Robinson, Martina Ribalta Coma-Cros, Mateu Marcet blasi
LOOKInG UPItALY
Vittoria Parrinello, Clara Camerino, Violetta Uboldi, Camillo Triulzi
nIGhteStOnIA
Lauri Tamm, Henry Timusk,Jana Huul, Agu Trolla
the SOMerSet hUnKY-PUnKSGreAt BrItAIn
oliver Annaly, James Wheeler,Thomas Kenrick, Will Whitmore
AnD the OtherS
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Once UPOn A tIMe here WAS A FOreSt...LIthUAnIA
Kestutis Lanauskas, Mindaugas Jurenas,Arturas burneika, Tomas Petreikis
DArK SIDe OF the MOOnFrAnce
Denis Magnan, baptiste Magnan,Jean Michel benhafaied, Martin Flaux
MOther LAnDMOnGOLIA
Tsagaan Munkh-Erdene, Khishigdalai Altankhuu,Ganbataar Enkh-Erdene, Arslankhuu battulga
FIGhtMOnGOLIA
batmunkh Tserendash, Govisaikhan baynamunkh,Altanbayar odgerel, Chantsaldom Lkhaasuren
IMMOrtAL SPIrIt OF AntIQUItYrUSSIA
Alex Sidorov, Stanislav Sidorov,yevgeniy Savchenko, Ilya Kernitskii
nOrthern SUnFInLAnD
Marianne Aittoniemi, Minna Eloranta,Saila Hastrup, Heikki Ryynänen
OURAY!FOR ICE CLIMBING
Jeff Mercier of France competes in a speed-climbing race during the Ouray Ice Festival in January, 2014.
Every January, climbers from around the world come to this mountain-walled town for the annual Ice Festival
A recreational climber nears the rim of the Ouray Ice Park’s 150-foot chasm as other climbers and spectators watch from below.
The tiny town of Ouray lies nestled in a deep bowl on the northern rim of Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. In the southern edge of this bowl, the Uncompahgre River has carved a deep narrow box canyon, shaded from the sun, where snow melt and runoff have always created ice formations during the winter.
Beginning in 1994, some enter-prising climbers began “farming” a denser wall of ice by piping water to the chasm rim, where it spilled down the sides, forming walls, pillars and icicles — up to 200 feet in height — in a surreal addition to the natural icescape. Thus began the Ouray Ice Park.
In January, 1996, Ouray held its
TEXT & PHoToS by AnDY PIPer
33
Looking into the abyss (opposite) a couple watch the climbing competition from one of the bridges spanning the chasm of the Ouray Ice Park. Ouray (pronounced You-
ray) is nestled in a bowl beneath towering peaks on the northern edge of the San Juan Mountains. Above, a young observer huddles against Ouray’s cold winter winds and snow.
Denver
c O L O r A D O
OUrAY
Ben Schuchard, of Fort collins, colorado, climbs alone, dwarfed by the blue-green icicles and pinnacles of the deepest part of the Ouray Ice Park.
evergreens and rocky Mountain stone surround a climber as he speed-climbs in competition.
39
BeLAY thAt! Kendra Strich, above, is caught by her belaying rope as ice crumbles under her climbing tool during the women’s speed climbing competition. She went on to win first place despite the slip.
Opposite: After ringing the cylindrical gong to complete his climb, a male competitor intentionally kicks loose from the ice wall to speed his 80-foot descent to the chasm floor for the next round.
the 20th Ouray Ice Festival will be held January 8-11, 2015, with the climbing competitions taking place on the weekend of Jan. 10 and 11.
first Ice Festival, and it has been an annual event ever since, featuring both recreational and international competitive climb-ing.
With cram-pons on their feet, and extremely modified ice axes (now referred to simply as “tools”), climbers from around the world race up the verti-cal ice walls, fac-ing various techni-cal challenges.
In the Hari Berg-er Speed Climb-ing Competition (named for the late Austrian climber Harald Berger), competitors race in pairs, straight up two 180-foot-tall routes, often in less than 30 seconds. To the cheers of specta-tors on the canyon rim and the two bridges that span the crevasse. n
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Durango ice climber Brian Clark, left, coaches his protege, 17-year-old Kai Meyer, through a difficult section of the speed climbing course. Meyer, in his first-ever competitive event, took fourth place.
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Durango ice climber Brian Clark, left, coaches his protege, 17-year-old Kai Meyer, through a difficult section of the speed climbing course. Meyer, in his first-ever competitive event, took fourth place.
From right to left, KendraStrich, Dawn Glanc and Stephanie Maureau took first, second, and third place in Women’s Speed climbing. three weeks later, Strich represented the U.S. in a demonstration of ice climbing at the Sochi Olympics. n
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