17th annual Vail Winterfest reveals large ice sculptures that should get people thinking

'Visages' is this year’s ice sculpture theme

News | Jan 11, 2024

Tricia Swenson

**The 17th annual Vail Winterfest in Vail Village consists of three features with the highest one being 12-feet tall.**
*Charles Townsend Bessent/Courtesy photo*

The town of Vail is known for its public art but it’s not every day you see ice used as a medium. The 17th annual Vail Winterfest celebrates the chilly temperatures of winter and puts the ice center stage with a display along Gore Creek. A small crowd braved the snow to come out and see the reveal of this year’s exhibit.

“We’re really thankful that you can help us all celebrate. We’d like to thank the Art in Public Places Board, the Vail Town Council the town of Vail Public Works department who have helped us pull this all together, Mountain Standard and Two Arrows who are making this occasion festive for us with treats and drinks and of course our artists, and we have Jake Proffit and Paul Wertin here with Alpine Ice,” said Molly Eppard of the town of Vail’s Art in Public Places.

The town of Vail’s Art in Public Places enlisted the expertise of Alpine Ice once again to create this year’s concept. Alpine Ice has been involved with over a dozen of these yearly exhibits. Wertin estimated that they used close to 90-100 blocks of ice for this project and each block is about 300 pounds. He and fellow ice sculptor, Jake Proffit worked for eight days on the exhibit site for about 10-12 hours per day and had two to three weeks of prep work in the studio.

This year’s concept was created by Proffit, who drew up three ice profiles. The work was titled “Visages” and the thought behind the creations was actually the topic of thought.

“This design is all about thoughts and some of these thoughts are going right over your head, some of these thoughts are little birdies in your ear, some thoughts stick with us and some are never thought of again. So, that is idea behind these pieces that make up this installation,” Proffit said. “It’s really just as simple as the thoughts that all of us as humans experience and think about and the relationship that we have with our thoughts.”

Wertin said that this concept had been submitted to the Art in Public Places board a few years ago but at the time, during COVID, the board decided to go with something more whimsical for the times. In years past, there have been abstract sculptures with vivid lighting, there have been movie screens made of ice with holiday movies like “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” showing on them and there were also a few years where architect Karl Krueger created polar bears out of snow. Other visual artists who have collaborated with the sculptors have included Olive Moya and Ben Roth in recent years.

Alpine Ice sculptors Jake Proffit, left, and Paul Wertin pose in front of one of the ice sculptures at the reveal of the Vail Winterfest display along Gore Creek in Vail Village on Tuesday.

Proffit did the majority of the carving and the detail work and then Wertin used Proffit’s drawings and took a 3-D model of a head and sliced that into nine-inch increments because that is the thickness of the blocks and then laid them flat and took those templates and stacked those.

“Once we stacked all those up we had a pretty good Lego, if you will, sculpture of a head that we could assemble together like Lego pieces and then we smoothed it out and added the detail of the eyes and the nose,” Wertin said.

Different tools give the ice different finishes. Some look glossy and some sections of ice look more rough and opaque.

“A lot of times we finish off pieces with a torch and the entire surface is glossy but we couldn’t do that for this project at this point because the ice was so cold last night and if you put the torch on ice when the temperature is really cold outside, the ice starts cracking and popping. We’ll come out when the temperature’s right and we’ll gloss them over,” Wertin said.

Alpine Ice spent eight days working on site and nearly a dozen days carving in the studio to create “Visages.”

“I’m glad to be done because I’m really tired. Each year, the ice doesn’t get any lighter!” joked Wertin but added, “We’re super stoked about how it came out. It came out super clean and totally just like what Jake drew up and I love it when a plan comes together.”

“The best part for me is getting all of the ice out here, getting it stacked and once that happens, that’s when the fun starts because then you can really carve and have it take shape,” Proffit said. “I’m just grateful to be a part of this whole thing. I’ve been ice sculpting for five years and I moved here from Kansas City for the job and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

“Visages” will be on display along the banks of Gore Creek near the International Bridge from now until the ice melts. Illumination begins at dusk until 10 p.m. nightly.