Skip to content

Snowking Winter Festival column: When the snow settles

By Joe Snow(aka Ryan McCord)

As some readers may be aware, I took a sabbatical last year, after more than 10 consecutive years of helping to build Yellowknife’s infamous yet ephemeral Snow Castle, home to the month-long Snowking’s Winter Festival each year in March.

Upon my return, I discovered that the organization that makes this unique festival happen each year continues to chug along like a well-oiled machine.

As one of the artisans who actually construct the castle – pour by pour, and often shovel-full by shovel-full – I can attest that the building crew, in particular, is operating at top efficiency to build the most majestic structure possible in the two-month-long construction period.

Some readers may wonder: “why did you go back to it?” or “why do these people do it?”

Here are a few reasons:

- Community building – bringing people together in a unique setting outdoors on the lake.

- Civic pride – creating something that Yellowknifers can be proud to show to our visitors from around the world.

- Creating a cultural capital – by creating a venue for a wide range of arts, music, film, and theatrical productions. We host a huge number of musicians from all across the country, as well as supporting local and northern artists.

Last week Mr. Freeze mentioned "snowcrete.” Snow is an amazing material to work with. After many years of careful experimentation, we have become very confident in the structural integrity of snow.

A front-end loader will have a hard time breaking through a three-foot-thick wall at the end of March. And several people can attest to having canoed through a standing snow arch in late May after Snowking XVIII, when it was surrounded by water and melting ice!

One recent afternoon, I was standing at the bottom of the formwork where Snowking was pouring snow in, for what would eventually become the popular ice slide.

As he blasted snow into the narrow formwork with the Bobcat, I couldn’t see what was happening in there at all. But after each shot, as the snow settled, I could see that the slide, like the castle itself, was going to be a good thing.

Something for all of us to enjoy and to be proud of.