Igloo building contest Sat. Feb. 2nd 2013

[Igloo Ed]

There will be an igloo building contest at the Sweetwater Grill in Steamboat Springs, Colorado on Sat. Feb. 2nd.
For contact information and a map visit their web site: http://www.thesweetwatergrill.com/
They had a contest two years ago that ended up with five igloos completed. Here's a picture from that event:

[Banff Martin]

Any chance there would be videos of buildingÉ I am curious to see the technique of competitive packers!

[Igloo Ed]

I don't have a video camera but maybe someone will. I'll see if I get some footage.
Mostly though, the competitors were inexperienced and I gave guidance during the event.
At the event two winters ago, there was one team that owned an ICEBOX and had built a few igloos with it. They said they loved it and tried to build an igloo or two in the backcountry each winter.
Another team, was my bud and his family form Estes. He knows how to build them but the family slowed him down a bit. His was a great igloo, the one with rabbit ears and eyes in the picture.
We had a wedding family building one too, they happened upon the event by chance and decided to join in. The bride and groom did well working together.
A group of three stout young ones built an igloo and put a line of icicles across the igloo, carved eyes and face and used water colors to make it look like a punk rocker with colored hair spikes.
The colorful igloo in the center of the picture was built by three young boys and their dad. They colored the igloo to look like planet earth. The picture doesn't do it much justice.
The judges for the event were the first patrons of the restaurant for the evening, which ended up being an elderly couple. They were just nibble enough to crawl into the igloos. They had their meal and entire evening payed for as judges.
They chose the igloo the ICEBOX customers built. It was a nine footer and had the trench/bench inside for the elderly couple to sit down. It was the biggest and easiest to get into.
I gave the winning team their share of advice too but it was more advanced types of advice as they had the basics down real good.

[Igloo Ed]

There were no video cameras at the event but it was a great event on a gloriously sunny day with deep snow similar to what Steamboat provided us two years ago.
The contest ended up with only three teams entering, but all three igloos were completed with everyone having fun to the very end.
The winning team was made of two families with five children and both couples. The adults built most of the igloo due to height issues but the kids kept at it too, bringing snow to the igloo, building and maintaining a walk, decorating the surrounding area with snowmen and tiny sculptures.
One husband had bought an ICEBOX while living in Wisconsin but has since moved to CO and was looking forward to building igloos here. He had just a bit of experience and quickly picked up the tips I gave him as they built their igloo.
They asked me to join them for their group picture:

The second place team was the same team that took first place two years ago and this year they built an elven foot igloo. They have built a few more igloos since the last contest and I was amazed at how fast they built the igloo. I knew they had experience, so I helped the family group first to get them going and by the time I got them going, the experienced team had completed the entire first row of their eleven foot igloo.
I did finally get to them and was able to give them a few pointers that sped them up even more.
They sculpted the igloo to look like a turtle, which I thought a great idea:

The third place team was comprised of workers from the Sweetwater Grill and they showed up a bit late with having to work the evening before. They did well on their igloo but it was clear the 4:00 finish time was rapidly approaching. Well, I figured it wouldn't be cheating with me having sort of working for the Grill. I hopped in and packed the top half of the igloo and we finished it just soon enough before 4:00 for the rest of the team to finish up the door and clean up a bit. I didn't get a picture of the team after completion as they ran to get dressed for work but I did take a photo early in the build:

The igloos were all built on the expansive lawn the Grill has and it looked like a bustling village as the igloos were built:

BTW, prizes were 1st $250 2nd $150 and 3rd $100