First Night Ice Labyrinth Finds New Home At Boyce Park
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The highlight of First Night in Pittsburgh was a shimmering labyrinth of illuminated ice. But what do you do with 300 ice blocks once the party's over?
They've been carted from the streets of Pittsburgh to the slopes of the Boyce Park Ski Area.
Master ice carver Rich Bubin and crew are re-building a village. He says this location is a bit more permanent than the parking lot in Pittsburgh.
"It's a good place. You've got a patio right outside the lodge. You can see it from inside. You can see it from outside. You can see it from the slopes. Plus, it's going to stay here until it melts in the spring," said Bubin.
The walls will once again be five-feet high. The king and queen's throne room will also be back. But they are making some changes in keeping with the ski area motif.
"I'm going to do skiers and snow boarders inside different rooms," Bubin says. "We'll have snow and ski stuff inside that you can sit and take pictures with."
Though he lives in Churchill, Bubin's reputation spans the globe. He was captain of the U.S. Olympic ice carving team in 2002.
"Twenty days later," he recalls, "I was fortunate to break the Guinness World Record for fastest carver on the planet."
It's not just walls. He also carves intricate statues of ice. Temporary art.
"For the last 30 years, I've been doing this full-time for a living," says the carver. "I've traveled the word with a chainsaw."
Though it's cold, hard work, Bubin says it's "an art of love; and once you get addicted, there's no going back."
RELATED LINKS:
First Night Visitors Will Get To Wind Their Way Through Ice Maze (12/30/13)
Ice Labyrinth Creating Lots Of Buzz At First Night Pittsburgh (12/31/13)
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