FAIRBANKS - Ice harvesting is underway at Ice Alaska's O'Grady Pond.
A volunteer crew consisting of a sawyer, a fork lift operator, several squeegee sweepers and pike pole handlers are liberating and retrieving huge blocks of ice daily for the upcoming 2011 BP World Ice Art Championships and accompanying Kids Ice Park.
The 22nd Ice Alaska extravaganza will open Feb. 22 and continue through March 27, featuring the sculpted creations of ice artists from around the world.
"We're working to get the ice harvested before it gets too thick," said Dick Brickley, Ice Alaska chairman.
Two smaller ice harvests were done earlier for logos and other projects, but the bigger blocks are now being reaped to build the 3-acre Kids Park and supply the ice competition sites.
A multitude of artists from Alaska, the Lower 48 and 18 countries are expected.
Members of Chinese and Russian teams are already on hand and eager to begin using the newly hewn ice blocks to start constructing the Kids Park. Teams from Japan and Mongolia are expected in the next week and also will be pitching in to build the popular children's playground.
On Wednesday and Thursday, an ice harvesting team of volunteers collected 75 large ice blocks measuring 4 feet by 6 feet by 3 feet, and weighing more than 4,000 pounds each from the on-site O'Grady pond. And the team expects to pull out 75 more blocks of the same size today, said Connie Adkins, volunteer operations manager.
Adkins has been harvesting and hoisting ice for more than a decade, learning from a pro, octogenarian Andy O'Grady. O'Grady has been harvesting ice since the first ice art championship was held in the late 1980s, and he continues today.
Safety is the top priority when working on the ice, Adkins said. There have been a few tumbles into the icy pond, but no injuries maneuvering blocks.
Workers wear spikes strapped to their boots to stay upright while clearing the ice blocks of water and slush or pushing a pike pole to maneuver the ice around to the fork lift.
The 50 single-block sculptors will each be given a 5-foot by 8-foot by 3-foot, block of ice to sculpt.
Each of the 25 two-to-four-member multi-block teams will be working with 10 blocks, measuring 4 feet by 6 feet by 3 feet each.
Blocks also will be available at the Amateur Open Exhibition for locals who want to try their hand at ice sculpting, and the Frances and Clarence G. Beers Youth Classic, open to middle and high school students will have some, too.
Adkins estimates 800 to 900 blocks, or approximately 3.5 to 4 million pounds of ice, will extracted from the pond before they are finished.
She plans to set aside and store 100 large ice blocks during the summer at the park. The ice inventory will then be ready for carving early next winter before the ice gets thick enough for harvesting, Adkins said. The stored ice blocks also will supply Anchorage for its festival next year.
Once the ice harvest is completed, the certified forklift volunteers will stay on assisting the carvers throughout the competitions, moving and hoisting blocks and carved pieces into place at the artists' discretion.<
"That's my big charge, helping the artists out," Adkins said.
For more information about this year's ice carving competitions, to register or volunteer, visit www.icealaska.com or call Ice Alaska at 388-6388.
Contact staff writer Mary Beth Smetzer at 459-7546.
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