Olympic contenders.

• Position: Ice artists

For clues to ice carving, spend a few minutes with Steve Dean of Fairbanks and Kevin Roscoe of Seattle, Wash. In 1992, the two met in Fairbanks at an Ice Art international competition, where Roscoe won the People's Choice Award and Dean won the Artist's Choice Award.

Teaming their talents, the two took first place in the 1993 U.S. Olympic Trials ice-carving competition, winning the right to represent America at the Olympic Arts Festival, a cultural sidelight of the Olympic Games held in Lillehammer last February.

A chef for 10 years, Roscoe admits that "99 percent of ice sculptors come out of the kitchen," where they learn to carve ice commercially for buffet tables. "When you go to Alaska, people don't put that (commercial) restriction in their mind. They can do what they want to. I enjoy being exposed to the abstract works," Roscoe says.

Dean, a fossil ivory sculptor for almost 20 years, says, "I knew before I ever worked in ice that I would end up doing it professionally to some extent because of my sculpting ability."

At team ice competitions, one person usually acts as leader; the right team leader is critical for completing an ice carving in a short time period, where competition gets intense, very physical and stressful.

"You have to be strong physically and mentally to successfully complete a piece with the proper design that is worth doing in the amount of time that we have," Dean says.

Contrary to custom, Roscoe and Dean worked best as co-leaders. "We were really closely matched in a lot of different categories as far as our expertise," says Dean. "Kevin had more experience in ice, and I had more experience in sculpting."

One talent that helps the pair carve winning ice creations is what Dean calls "the ability to visualize something three-dimensionally inside a given space." He explains, "To have a successful sculpture, you really need to do a lot of forethought as to the end result...