Photos: Winners of the snow and ice sculpting contest for the 2023 St. Paul Winter Carnival

Olivia Stevens, Pioneer Press
·2 min read

The winners of this year’s St. Paul Winter Carnival snow sculpting and ice carving competitions were announced Sunday.

Ice carving

The Winter Carnival’s annual ice carving competitions never fail to produce dazzling works at art. This year was no different.

Of the multi-block carvers, who work from 20 blocks over the course of 48 hours, Terry Reis of Mediapolis, Indiana; Brody Reis of Pekin, Illinois; AJ Edwards of Richfield and Rob Graham of Minneapolis dazzled with “Winter Verse,” taking how the top prize of $1,500.

Next came Trevor Pearson of Edina, Jaime Tellez of Edina and Nick Lensing of Rochester, whose “Dance of Love” won them $750. In third, Paul and Deneena Hughes of Eden Prairie took home $350 for “2 Vikings Combat.”

The individual block competition required contestants to work from two 10-by-20-by-40-inch blocks of ice, having only five hours to craft the perfect sculpture at either the professional or artisan level.

First place at the professional level, for $600, came the Hughes’ again with “Shoot for the Stars.” Artisans John Raak of Mendota Heights, Randy Raak of Golden, Colorado and Biau Raak of Kirkwood, Missouri won $300 for “Rose Trellice.”

Snow sculpting

Artists were hard at work at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds for the top $1,000 cash prize and the opportunity to represent Minnesota at the National Snow Sculpting Competition from Feb. 1 to Feb. 5. Lasting from 8 a.m. Friday to noon Sunday, competitors were tasked to create masterpieces out of eight-foot cubes of snow.

Of the 21 sculptures, “Flakeophora Sculptorious,” created by Dusty Thune and Jason Arney-O’Neil of St. Paul and David Aichinger of Osceola, Wisconsin, took first place. The team, House of Thune, also won this year’s World Snow Sculpture Championship in Stillwater Jan. 18 to Jan. 22.

In second with a $500 cash prize came artists Sheldon Moe of St. Paul and Jason Moe and Kevin Wynn of Minneapolis, who created “The Thing About It Is.” Finally, Adam Turner of Roseville, Mike Majerus of Rogers and Bryon Mulligan of Mendota Heights came third with “Fire Dance,” taking home $250.

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