Alaska life; odysseys in ice.

• Author: Woodring, Jeanne
• Position: Ice Art competition in Fairbanks, Alaska

Fairbanks bursts into brilliance each spring with its dazzling, world-renowned Ice Art competition.

From the depths of darkness come bright ideas. For proof, look at the glitter that hits Fairbanks every March. After lying shrouded in ice and cold for six long months, the town bursts into spring with a week-long Ice Alaska competition, officially named Ice Art. Dozens of international ice carvers come to sculpt vibrant forms from monolithic ice blocks. At the competition sites, ice carvings up to 40 feet high stand in silent splendor during the day and vibrate like rainbows at night, lit by colored lights. At businesses around town, dozens more ice statues greet passers-by.

At Aurora Animal Clinic on College Road, a large, icy dog and cat stare at each other. Looking out at his town's winter wonderland, Val Stuve, chief of staff at the clinic, says, "We sit up here in the dark for a long time, and it's uplifting to see these sculptures around. They bring a little cheer and uplift the community spirit."

"All of this comes together at such a wonderful time of year," says Kathy Fehmerling, sales manager at the Captain Bartlett Inn, which helps provide lodging and meals for the carvers. "Spring is Fairbanks' best-kept secret."

A Tradition of Nice Ice

"In older times before there was much electricity and refrigerators, people used to cut ice in the wintertime for ice boxes," says retired Col. Wally Cox, a former commander at nearby Fort Wainwright Army Base and today handling Ice Alaska's marketing and public relations. "Every spring they had an event called Spring Carnival. Ice sculpting was part of it, but it fell to disuse."

The tradition got revived during Fairbanks' spring carnival of 1987. "That first year, we took a little literary license and called it an international competition because we had one (ice-carving) team from China and one from Chicago," Cox recalls. "But the most important thing that happened was that there were about 39 local people who wanted to learn under those ice sculptors. The event has grown exponentially since then."

Nice ice also helped the Ice Alaska competition grow into a world-class event that lures more than 40 international ice-carving teams to Fairbanks each year.

"The ice up here is aqua blue and so clear that you can read a newspaper through it when it's 40 inches thick," Cox says. "A French team has come back to this event every year because they say no place else in the world has ice like this."

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