Michigan Tech. University All-Nighter Snow Statue Competition

  Michigan Tech. University All-Nighter Snow Statue Competition lasts from 4 PM to 8 AM the next day.  The theme was "Thousands of Pages Unfold in the Bitter Cold" and they were not lying.  We collaborated with a doctor of the University of Michigan life flight crew, some nurses and their significant others.  We made a snow statue that had 2 books with one book open and a helicopter is flying out of it with an ambulance driving out of it.  The base book is an anatomy book.  The crew consisted of twelve people.  One couple flew in from South Carolina just to come to Michigan Tech. Winter Carnival and to participate in this all-nighter.  Crazy people did not know what they were getting into.  There were three people that delivered snow to us on site.  These people were our angels, despite some of the snow containing brown "presents" from my brother-in-law's dog, Nora.  We just tried to use the cleanest snow we could find.

  Holy mother of cold, last night and this morning was brutal with the 20-30 MPH gusts with 17 MPG sustained winds.  We were in a wind tunnel.  We started at 9 degrees and went to 2 degrees.  The windchill was -13 degrees or more.  Any exposed skin would sear with pain.  The only way I survived as long as I did was the chemical heaters in a bag called "Little Hotties."  Those things were a miracle sent from heaven!  I was still chilled to the bone despite my 70's fresh blue snow mobile outfit with all of my head covered in 4 layers of some kind.  We had to reprint and re-laminate the sign for the statue so I went home and changed into snow pants and my LL Bean jacket.  I figured out I should have been wearing that from the start.  Now I know.

  There is definitely a knack to getting the fine details in snow statue building.  I made my contribution at the end where the details were going to be defined.  I did my best until my toes started freezing.  Then I was ready to be done.  I am proud of everyone's accomplishment and do not have to participate in the future.  Without the wind and bitter cold, of course my experience would have been different, maybe more pleasant.  On the other hand, maybe then the conditions would not have then been ripe to have the statue stick together and freeze in a timely manner to finish in time with a decent product.  I am happy to say that the ambitions project came off as well as we could have expected and am excited to hear what the judges say about it.  Someone really should be there to dust off all the snow tomorrow.  I hope someone is awake and has the presence of mind to do that to put our best foot forward.  I hope we win, but the participation was enough for me.  Not many people can say they took part in something so unique.  Good people, hard workers and creativity made their ideas come to life.  We could not have had better people to team up with for this project.  I am proud and happy to be done.  Time for bed.