•Carnival’s soggy opener
Their big idea was cooked up in a bar, so it seemed fitting that Joe Hauwiller and Curt Cook each were enjoying a beer before noon Friday as they sat next to their chunk of snow.
Within hours – weather permitting – they would transform all 512 square feet of it into a sculpture of raccoons foraging through a garbage can. The annual St. Paul Winter Carnival opened at 10 a.m. Friday on Harriet Island under a sky that was deep blue and clear, and there was hope the raccoon sculpture would emerge.
By mid-afternoon, however, the sunlight and temperatures that hovered around 40 had done their damage. Many of the ice carvings from the two-day team sculpting competition had imploded.
Snowflakes topping four of the signature archways had fallen. Entire statues of Vulcanus Rex, as well as a giant postcard of Minnesota, had disintegrated. A carving of the sun lost all of its pointy rays.
“So, do you have to come here before noon?” said Ken Borchert, of Duluth, who was visiting his stepdaughter, Sonja Ramos, of St. Paul, and her two children. “It’s in the Salvador Dali school of ice sculpture. Everything’s melted.”
Festival organizers had discussed sheltering the ice carvings with a large canopy to protect them from sunlight. But Friday morning weather reports suggested temperatures would stay cold enough for the sculptures, carnival spokeswoman Mary Huss said.
“We forewent the tent, much to our misfortune,” she said.
The carnival’s master carver likely will repair the archways and an ice throne at the entrance to the fairgrounds, Huss said.
The idea of having all the carnival festivities at Harriet Island, a new concept this year, drew good reviews from some of the people who showed up for the opening. But the problem of finding adequate and affordable parking near downtown St. Paul on a weekday proved an issue.
The Winter Carnival is providing shuttle buses from downtown to Harriet Island, but waits for the shuttles seemed lengthy Friday. They were supposed to run every 15 to 20 minutes, but the intervals seemed to be longer.
Once at the park, the carnival’s first visitors didn’t have a lot to see. While the ice sculptures were completed, many were completely or partially covered to protect them from the sun. That worked during the morning, but then afternoon came.
Some carnival-goers Friday afternoon said they expected more. Tim Ghess, of Minneapolis, who came with his daughter, Deja, 17, said they spent all of 15 minutes on the island – “and most of the time we were waiting in line for the shuttle,” he said. “It’s just a lot of dirty snow.”
From a sights-and-smells point of view, the Winter Carnival is like a frigid State Fair. The smells of frying corn dogs and mini-donuts wafts across the grounds, and vendors pitch everything from Saturn cars to the South Beach Diet.
Some of the three-person teams in the snow-sculpting competition were sawing, hacking and chipping the 8-by-8-foot cubes that would be their medium.
Others, like Hauwiller and Cook, had started but were taking a break. They were waiting until sundown, when the snow would be more solid and easier to cut. “If you touch the snow block, it’s real soft on some sides,” said Hauwiller as he and Cook lounged in a couple of lawn chairs with their beers and homemade chocolate chip cookies.
“We were discussing what we should do, at a bar, and we asked the waitress what we should do and she said, ‘Minnesota wildlife,’ ” said Hauwiller. “The other guy on the team said the only wildlife he ever sees is raccoons getting in his garbage.”
Hence their sculpture.
On the other side of the carnival grounds, workers were lifting, moving and then gently lowering the 400-pound blocks of ice that are to become a maze.
Paris Menefee, of St. Paul, brought her four boys, ages 4 to 11, hoping that they could check it out. But volunteers were still scrambling to get the job done because of a later-than-usual ice harvesting caused by recent warm weather.
The maze is now expected to open sometime today. Other attractions will have already gotten under way – there’s music at the Hot Dish Tent, Will Steger’s sled dogs and the Grande Day Parade through downtown.
“We’ll continue to come back because it’s a ritual,” Menefee said.
But as for this year? “No. We’re done.”• For video highlights of the St. Paul Winter Carnival’s opening day, go to www.twincities.com.
Copyright 2007 Pioneer Press.
