HOUGHTON, MICH. -- Every year in the weeks leading up to Michigan Technological University’s beloved Winter Carnival, there are always signs that the fiercely competitive, deeply secretive work behind the annual snow statue competition has begun.
For starters, “snow bandits” appear everywhere: students driving around to find piles of the essential building material, shoveling it into the backs of their pickup trucks before slushing it in giant pails to begin the molding process.
There’s also not a used hair dryer or clothes iron to be found around town — since these are essential tools to sculpt the snow into intricate, impressive designs.
The statues have become a spectacle that’s synonymous with Winter Carnival, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Organized entirely by Michigan Tech’s Blue Key National Honor Society, a student leadership group established specifically to coordinate the festival, Winter Carnival is a revered community celebration that showcases the region’s 200-plus inches of snowfall with dozens of competitions and events.
There is no Carnival competition quite as astounding as the snow statues, though. In recent decades the statues have grown in both size and complexity: previous years’ entries have towered over nearby buildings, incorporated interactive design elements, and even featured details like chain link and stained glass, all formed out of snow and ice.
The statues are the result of two hotly contested events: The month-long competition, starring elaborate sculptures made by Michigan Tech’s fraternities, sororities and other student organizations, and an “All-Nighter” competition that starts at 5 p.m. one evening and is judged at 9 a.m. the following morning. Though it’s all part of Carnival’s rollicking celebration of all things winter, the student groups take their work very seriously, following the Blue Key society’s long list of rules and, in some cases, relying on top-secret tips passed down institutionally year after year.
“It’s an engineering school,” explains Cyndi Perkins, Michigan Tech’s senior content specialist. “They have very strict standards.”
The winners of the 2022 Winter Carnival’s month-long statue competitions were announced late last week, with Phi Kappa Tau’s mind-boggling installation clinching first place, extending the fraternity’s winning streak to four years in a row. Though Winter Carnival has officially wrapped for this year, the statues will live on as long as the winter weather will let them.
Scroll on for a peek at a few of this year’s winners; learn more about Michigan Tech’s Winter Carnival and see more of the sculptures at https://www.mtu.edu/carnival/2022/.
An in-progress photo shows just how elaborate the process is for Winter Carnival's month-long snow statues.
Michigan Tech's snow statue competitions are divided into monthlong and one-night, or All-Nighter, categories. Phi Kappa Tau's impressive 2022 entry took first place in both the overall monthlong statue competition and the monthlong men's division.
A frozen face-off is part of Phi Kappa Tau's intricate, elaborate, first-place winning sculpture design for the Michigan Tech's 2022 Winter Carnival.
The Michigan Tech Huskies mascot is featured in Phi Kappa Tau's winning statue installation.
Tau Kappa Epsilon's carnival-themed sculpture, "Carnival Fun Galore, a Tech Tradition We Adore," placed second in the month-long men's division as well as in the overall division.
A detail from Tau Kappa Epsilon's sculpture.
Alpha Sigma Tau's "Come One, Come All!" scored 1st place in the month-long women's division and took third place in the month-long overall division.
An elephant detail as part of Alpha Sigma Tau's "Come One, Come All!" sculpture.
Lambda Chi Alpha's "Beignets, Beads & Bling, It's a Mardi Gras Thing" took third place in the month-long men's division.
First place in the month-long co-ed division went to Alpha Gamma Delta and Sigma Tau Gamma for their installation, "Statue Through the Years Building on Our Peers: A Feature of Older vs. Newer Statues."
Third place in the month-long co-ed division went to Delta Phi Epsilon and Beta Sigma Theta for "Cheers with our Beers to 100 Years!"
In the all-nighter sculpture building contest, Catholic Campus Ministries at St. Al's took first place in both the overall and the co-ed divisions with this work titled "Seeking snowy joy? Enter the Carnival gates. Jesus waits inside."
The Society of Women Engineers took first place in the all-nighter women's division.
Learn more about Michigan Tech’s Winter Carnival and see more of the sculptures at https://www.mtu.edu/carnival/2022/.
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https://www.mlive.com/news/2022/02/see-the-incredible-snow-statues-of-michigan-techs-100th-winter-carnival.html
2022-02-15 17:06:00Z
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