It was chilly and overcast on the day of the competition. My fellow builders and I assembled an hour beforehand, perusing the snow sculptures and food stalls. Finally, it was time. We were led to our area, hearts pounding, gloves flexing, before jumping into the snow and frantically building…

⛄ snowmen! ⛄

The annual Iiyama snow festival was held on the weekend of February 9th and 10th, and on the 9th was an attempt to break the world record for the most snowmen built in an hour. The snowmen had to have three separate balls, two eyes, a nose, and two arms. Participants were also not allowed to use any tools. The current record, held by a city in Hokkaido, was 2,036 snowmen. Apparently, they broke the record a DAY after Iiyama set it, so this was Iiyama’s chance to take the record back.

There were a lot of people gathered just to build snowmen! There were about three inches of fresh powder on the top; below that was an icy slush. Not the best for making snowmen, but you do what you can with what you got.

My friends and I made 22 snowmen! They look a like a miniature army of white walkers…

Unfortunately we didn’t break the record. We had just over 900 people participate and made around 1800 snowmen. Maybe Iiyama will try again next year!

These were some of my favorite snow sculptures…

…and a cute snowman macaroon I bought!