Photos courtesy of Angela Jaehnig First Place in the Heikinpäivä Snow Sculpting Invitational went to Team Mexico, with a prize of $1,800

HANCOCK – While some of this weekend’s Heikinpäivä events were cancelled, and the Polar Plunge was postponed, severe cold temperatures and windchills did not deter teams from competing in the Heikinpäivä Snow Sculpting Invitational competition on Quincy Street.

The Invitational took place on Quincy Green from Friday through Sunday afternoon with the judges announcing the winners at approximately 2 p.m. The 3-day event featured international, national and local teams creating chilling masterpieces on Quincy Green, following national competition standards.

Five teams – including international artists from Mexico and Turkey, along with national standout Sculptora Borealis, and two local crews – Chisel and Squeak and St. Albert the Great – had 48 hours to carve 8Ö8Ö8-foot cubes blocks of snow into intricate creations. Sculptora Borealis took the first place prize at last year’s first snow sculpture competition.

The event was created with support from the city of Hancock and Visit Keweenaw in February 2025, and features snow artists for a multi-day marathon of snow creativity, according to Visit Keweenaw.

This year’s winners are:

1st Place: Team Mexico,

2nd Place: Sculptora Borealis

3rd Place: Team Turkiye, $500

4th Place: Chisel and Squeak, $300

5th Place: St. Albert the Great

With temperatures hovering around 3 degrees and a brisk northwest wind, few spectators were present Sunday to view to the statues or hear the winners.

Jesse Wiederhold, managing director of Visit Keweeanw said in spite of the rare appearance of sunshine on Saturday, only about five people participated in the snowman-building event.

As far as cold was concerned the teams took it in stride.

Bob Lechtenberg, with Team Sculptora Borealis, said they are used to it.

“It wasn’t too bad,” he commented.

Lechtenberg said the secret to building a great statue is compressing the snow blocks without using water to add moisture when the temperature are below freezing.

“Michigan Tech doesn’t need to add all the water that they add,” he said. “They just need to compress it and they would have a much easier time sculpting it.”

Compressing it, he said, is a matter of stomping on the snow while it is still in the wooden forms. According to the judges, there were plenty of volunteers on hand for compressing the snow.