See some of this year’s coolest Fur Rondy snow sculptures

Updated: February 25, 2019 Published: February 25, 2019

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"What feelings Sound Like" took top honors during the Alaska State Snow Sculpture Championship during Fur Rondy on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019. (Bill Roth / ADN)

This year’s top honors at the Fur Rendezvous’ Alaska State Snow Sculpture Championship went to competition veterans Alaska Department of Snow, a three person team that coaxed a delicate, detailed meditation on music out of a chunk of snow under the Ship Creek bridge.

The three-person team Paul Hanis, Patrick Boonstra and Chuck Mazurek, will advance to a national snow sculpting competition held in Minnesota next winter.

[Schedule: From snow sculptures to outhouse races, here are highlights of 2019 Fur Rendezvous]

On Sunday, the sculpture’s thin “violin strings” were ardently resisting the warming afternoon sun as fur-coat clad attendees stopped to pose for pictures next to the winning sculpture.

Team member and artist Paul Hanis wrote on his Facebook page that the team was up all night Saturday working on the piece, complete with “frozen stiff” Moose’s Tooth pizza consumed at 2:30 a.m., in 5 degree weather.

“Staying up all night and toiling with heavy water and tools is always a major strain, but the satisfaction of a piece to be proud of and a trip to Nationals next year make it all worth it,” he wrote.

This year, seven families competed as teams in the annual Fur Rendezvous snow sculpting competition -- more than ever, said Amie Haakenson, a member of the Fur Rondy board of directors.

One of those family teams: The Blockheads, a five-person team that won third place in the family division.

Crystal Epperly-May, Scott Heckel and their three kids spent 60 hours this year coaxing a pair of giant mukluks trimmed with flowers out of a block of snow under the Ship Creek Bridge, using tools ranging from a chisel to a cheese grater.

“Sometimes we get on each others nerves. But in the end, it’s all worth it,” said their 15-year-old Dakoma Epperly-May.

Michelle Theriault Boots

Michelle Theriault Boots is a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News. She focuses on in-depth stories about the intersection of public policy and Alaskans' lives. Before joining the ADN in 2012, she worked at daily newspapers up and down the West Coast and earned a master's degree from the University of Oregon.