Yesterday, on a softly overcast afternoon out on Yellowknife Bay, the Snowking team was hard at work. Joe Snow, Baron von Blizzard, the Avalanche Kid and a few other regulars are pushing the wooden frameworks into place for the second big pour that’ll form the high-arched main door for this year’s castle. Buttercup the dog dances around in their midst, hoping someone will indulge her by tossing a chunk of snow in the air. She leaps, catches a mouthful in midair.
Then it’s time to take a break from the -30 temperatures and head back to World Headquarters, a cozy little shack at the back of the construction grounds, for a cookie and coffee break, and maybe another look at the plans. Outside the shack, the Snowking himself is busy working away on a slab of ice — the team cut twice as much ice this year than ever before and they’re planning two big ice walls for the front of the castle. Then the break is over and it’s back out into the cold to haul ice and carve snow and get that thing built and ready for the Snowking Winter Festival‘s twentieth anniversary in March.
Snowking World HQ and break area.
Plans for Snowking XX.
The crew’s current canine team member, Butter Cup, whose main interests include warming laps and chasing ice, but only when it’s of a hardness to her liking.
