Local team shines in international
competition
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March 28, 2013 |
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| Team
USA Idaho/Bonners Ferry, third place
finishers, and top U.S. finisher, in the
week long debut event of the
international Carve Tahoe Snow Sculpting
competition. |
| Photo courtesy
Lee Harris |
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Competing against some of the very best snow
sculpting teams worldwide, Team USA
Idaho/Bonners Ferry; Lee Harris, Winter Braden
and Josh Knaggs, traveled to Lake Tahoe,
California in February to compete in Carve Tahoe
International Snow Sculpting Competition, a juried
event held at Northstar California Resort, and
came away with third place behind teams from
Germany and Japan.
The winners, Team Germany; Friedemann Theil,
Lothar Luboschik, and Detlef Schurtzmann, have
been carving snow together for years, winning
major events in Germany, the United States,
Japan and China, as have Team Japan; Yoshimasa
Tsuchida, Teruyasu Matsumura and Shin Ozaki.
 The
Bonners Ferry team had much less experience
working together as a team, but they meshed
well, carving a 20-ton block of snow to depict
Kermode bears, also known as "spirit bears," a
small subspecies of black bear that range along
the British Columbia coast in which one in ten
is born a creamy white color due to two
recessive genes found only in that
geographically isolated clan.
In their sculpture, which lasts only as long as
temperatures stay cold, they depicted two
Kermode bears laughing at humans trying to
categorize them.
Harris, who also carves antler and stone and
paints, has been a part of Bonners Ferry snow
sculpting teams for years, bringing home
numerous accolades. Braden, a Bonners Ferry High
School graduate, is more known for his athletic
than his artistic abilities. A standout runner
in Badger track, he is now an extreme
snowboarder, climber and world traveler.
Knaggs didn't graduate BFHS, but he's a popular
and well-respected art teacher with a love of
the outdoors. Specializing in mixed media
painting and ceramics, he's an avid hiker,
snowshoer, boater and rock climber.
Other teams in the competition included Team
Finland, Team USA/California, Team USA/Canada,
Team USA Idaho/Dunham and Team USA Wisconsin.
Judging was done not only by an eminent panel of
experts, but by those who viewed the sculptures,
which took a week to create before winners were
announced February 13.
For a donation to the Sierra Avalanche Center,
members of the public were able to cast a
ballot, making the decisions reliant not only on
professional artistic criteria, but popular
support as well.
Carve
Tahoe, to become an annual event,
paid most of the expenses for each team selected
to compete except transportation to and from the
airport and parking. Team Bonners Ferry extends
its appreciation to the Bonners Ferry Rotary
Club for their donation to make the team's trip
possible.
"We were very pleased with our effort," Harris
said, "and happy to represent our town." |
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