Montana Kaimin / March 26, 1999 / page 10

Cool as Ice

By Chad Dundas

This is some of the best ice in the world.  It forms naturally in the O’Grady Pond, where volunteers use chainsaws and heavy-duty forklifts to harvest it in eight-foot long, 7,500 pound chunks.

     The locals call them “arctic diamonds,” and the ice is said to be so pristine that one can read the headlines on the front page of the Fairbanks Daily News through a four-foot block.  Ice so special that once a year, artists from all over the world gather to do battle over it during the annual World Ice At Championships.

     Among them is University of Montana sculptor Roger Wing, who has been participating in the art championships for three years.  This year, he and his partner Paula Payne traveled to Alaska in early March to compete in five days of Knock-down, drag-out ironman competition.  The world ice carving championship, you see, ain’t no 4-H art show.

     “It can be extremely athletic,”  Wing said.  “You’re standing, working in the cold for five days.   It’s comparable to any endurance test.  With all the time constraints and other rules, it’s very much a sport.”

     The carving events call for contestants to work around-the-clock, striving to finish their elaborate, gigantic sculptures in the time allotted.  Upon completion, their creations are ranked by a seven-man jury that evaluates each piece along a variety of criteria that account for artistic impression and technical skill.

     According to Wing, though the championships pit teams against each other, the competition is mostly friendly.  The real adversary, even more vexing than the clock and the jury, can be Alaska’s harsh climate. 

     During the last couple of days we really puh the envelope,” he said.  “You need to take care of yourself, so you make it to the last day, but it can still be very physically abusive.  In order to finish, your physical needs become a secondary issue.”

     Artists, wielding chainsaws and giant, long-handled chisels, don full-body snow suits to prtect against the elements.  Lunch usually comes whenever it can be consumed easily and quickly.  Contact with the outside world can be made using a phone booth at the competition site.  The booth, of course, is also made of ice.

     This year, Wing and Payne competed in the championship’s “Multi-Block” event.  In Multi-block, four-man teams create enormous, elaborate pieces in just under a week’s time.  The Montana sculptors, who traveled to Fairbanks not knowing who would complete the other half of their team, were paired with two artists from the Czech Republic.  Wing, who has previously competed with partners from Poland and Finland, said the team couldn’t have been better for the UM duo.

     “I’ve got this tradition now where, each year, I work with international artists.  This year we started calling the team the Czech Party Mix,” Wing joked.  “It really worked out well for us, going up there and not knowing our teammates.”

     Wing’s team set out to construct a coral reef scene, complete with an 18-foot band coral and a giant moray eel.  But near the end of the contest adversity struck when a block of the ice toppled from its high perch and smashed an area of scaffolding that held one of the team’s Czech members.  The accident caused Lumir Lang to fall 15 feet.  He had to be carried from the competition site on a stretcher.

     “After we lost our partner the teamcame to a standstill for a couple of hours,” Wing said.  “But we re-grouped and decided that we’d already paid the price and that we had to finish.”

     The team did complete its work on time and even captured fourth-place in the Multi-block’s abstract event.  Following the contest, Lang was relesed from the hospital without any serious injuries.

     “The last I heard he’s fine and is back out competing in crazy, full-contact winter sports,” Wing said.

     Wing added that he’s already looking forward to competing in next year’s world championships.  For the year 2000 competition Wing said he may compete in the single-block event which is smaller and more intimate.

     For now, though, he’s content with readjusting to life outside of the ice carving circuit.

     “It’s kind of weird,” Wing said.  “For about a week after the competition, everything you see looks like ice.”