Winterlude: Ice Sculpting Competition

Every year in February the City of Ottawa throws a massive wintertime celebration known as Winterlude.  Apparently post-Yuletide winter celebrations are really common in Canadian cities.  I suppose you've got to have something fun to do to get you through the months of cold and snow, hence the Winterludes.

This ice sculpture was covered with shiny silver tarps when I first saw it, but it was subsequently unveiled and revealed to be a giant ice lobster!  As though a giant ice lobster isn't fantastic enough, the best part of it is that the ice lobster is a life-sized replica of a giant metal lobster sculpture in someplace like New Brunswick!  What?!?

Unsurprisingly and somewhat obviously, part of Winterlude involves ice-sculpting competitions!  Which remind me of the chainsaw carving competitions held in Ridgeway.  Anyway, the competitions come from all around and are given blocks of ice and a set amount of time in which to complete their sculpture.  The were all set up in a group of large tent-like structures known as "The Crystal Pavilion".  There didn't seem to be a theme to the sculptures.

This little ice sculpture is of Wolverine (not the X-Man, clearly), and was in a large teepee.  The man in the teepee told me that Wolverine is a Trickster.  I was like, "Coyote is the Trickster."  Then Teepee Man informed me that in the north Wolverine is the Trickster and in the south Coyote is the Trickster: south, like with the Navajo and tribes in the plains.  There were two other Tricksters on the other side of the teepee, who I could not see.  And I responded, "Ahhh... I'm from the States, so the only Tricksters I know are Coyote and Raven."  Teepee Man nodded and looked pleased that I knew my Tricksters.  Then I said, "It's probably not a good idea to have all the Tricksters in one Teepee.  They'll be up to something."