International Ice Carving Competition

And the winners are…
1st Place & Metro People Choice Award – The Baisas Brothers from Canada & the Philippines for Alliance.

2nd Place: Iceuropean – Samuel Girault & Michal Mizula from France and Poland for Magic.

3rd Place & Artist Choice: Team Sakha – Egor Stepanov & Alexey Andreev from the Republic of Sakha in Russia for Talking to the Moon.

The 2018 International Ice Carving Competition will take place in a giant tent which will mitigate very warm or very cold temperatures and the ice sculptures will remain in pristine condition for the duration of the Festival.

Up to 10 two-person teams of professional artists from around the world will take 15 blocks of crystal clear carving ice and 34 hours to create their ice carving masterpiece. The competition ends on Friday, January 26 at noon, the sculptures are scored by judges Ikuo Kanbayashi from Ottawa, Eileen Heidler from Edmonton and Kim Fjordbotten from Edmonton. Awards are presented at 4:30 pm on Friday, January 26.

Learn more about the professional ice carving artists that are coming from around the world to compete at Boardwalk Ice on Whyte.

Professional Ice Carving Artists’ Registration

What’s so special about carving ice?

Carving ice is made by a special process that freezes water from the bottom up in a Clinebell machine. This process allows the impurities to rise to the top and be trimmed off, resulting in a crystal clear block of ice. Each block of ice is 1M (40″) X .5M (20″) X .25M (10″) and weighs 135 KG (297 LBS).

How do the judges score the carvings?

The carvings are scored by skilled judges and each ice carving is judged on first impression, structure, skill and technique, details, concept and design, creativity and artistic merit.

Canada Cup of Ice Carving

The Canada Cup of Ice Carving will showcase the best of ice carving talent from Winterlude in Ottawa, Ice Magic in Lake Louise and the Boardwalk Ice on Whyte Festival in Edmonton.

This year, the Canada Cup of Ice Carving will be held at Ice Magic in Lake Louise, Alberta in 2018.

The top scoring team from each of the 3 International Ice Carving Competitions will receive a guaranteed berth at the following year’s Canada Cup of Ice Carving.

Congratulations to Team Sakha, Egor Stepanov and Alexey Andreev, from the Republic of Sakha in Russia, the 1st place winners from Ice on Whyte 2016, representing Ice on Whyte at the Canada Cup of Ice Carving in 2018!

The Canada Cup of Ice Carving Comes to Edmonton, Alberta in 2019!