Two stonemasons from Sheffield have helped Team GB secure victory at the World Snow Festival in Grindelwald.
Lily Marsh and Steve Roche were part of the team that won the public vote and came third in the jury vote. The team competed against 10 countries, with the Spanish team claiming first in the jury vote.
The five day competition saw sculptors come from all over the world to transform blocks of snow and ice into breathtaking sculptures.
Christine Close, who led the team, reached out to Steve looking for stone carvers and sculptors to transfer their skills for the competition.
Lily Marsh said the competition was “very left field for us, because we’d not really heard of snow sculpture competitions”
Despite swapping stone for snow, Marsh said it was “refreshing to work with snow” compared to dust as “when you’re warm, you get a lovely refreshing face full of snowflakes”
The team carved a kraken eating a ship as part of the myths and legends theme of the competition.
Carving with snow comes with different challenges and it’s very different from their day to day job, Marsh explained.
“When cutting or carving snow, your ability to move the material can work as quickly as your mind. So it’s quite responsive.”
“With stone if you chip too much off, you’ve got much longer to consider how to do it safely, whereas with snow it’s much easier to knock a piece off and then it’s hard to rectify.”
Outside the challenges of the festival the team had time to explore the “picteresque, chocolate box type of place” that is Grindelwald.
The team were able to go sledging and go up to the top of the Aiger which is all part of being involved with the competition, Marsh explained.
Even with a change in the temperature and challenges, the team still came away with a win.
Marsh said that, “we didn’t assume we would place anywhere” but it was the “cherry on top that we won.”
“Really lovely for people to say that we’d done it well and the effort we’d put in had been recognised”
You can see more of Lily Marsh’s work on her website
Images by Lily Marsh