Icy Pursuits
The beauty and heartbreak of ice carving in the Canadian Rockies
They arrive every year, wielding chainsaws, chisels and sheer determination. Set against the breathtaking backdrop of Lake Louise, these artists brave the elements to transform solid blocks of ice into dazzling masterpieces.
For two and a half days in January, they carve, chisel and grind, their efforts culminating in works of art that are as fleeting as they are beautiful.
Welcome to the Ice Magic Festival, an annual event that beckons some of the best ice carvers in the world to gather and create frozen wonders right before your eyes.
Ice carving is not for the faint-hearted. The medium is both mesmerizing and maddening — a fickle canvas that shifts with the slightest change in weather.
Too warm, and the ice softens, dripping away precious details. Too cold, and it becomes brittle, prone to cracking under a chisel’s touch. It’s a dance between precision and impermanence, where every cut carries the weight of creation and destruction.
"What's fascinating about ice is that it is incredibly brittle and you have to be really cautious how you work with it but the result from it is absolutely magical," says Andrew Zoller, one of this year's participants.
"It actually creates a magical finished quality when the light hits it and it sparkles and creates a dazzling effect you just can't get with any other medium."
Andrew Zoller
Andrew Zoller
Andrew Zoller
Andrew Zoller
Ice carving is not for the faint-hearted. The medium is both mesmerizing and maddening — a fickle canvas that shifts with the slightest change in weather.
Too warm, and the ice softens, dripping away precious details. Too cold, and it becomes brittle, prone to cracking under a chisel’s touch. It’s a dance between precision and impermanence, where every cut carries the weight of creation and destruction.
"What's fascinating about ice is that it is incredibly brittle and you have to be really cautious how you work with it but the result from it is absolutely magical," says Andrew Zoller, one of this year's participants.
"It actually creates a magical finished quality when the light hits it and it sparkles and creates a dazzling effect you just can't get with any other medium."
Andrew, a Calgary native, remembers coming to the Lake Louise Ice Magic Festival as a child and being mesmerized by the huge sculptures. He would take his own children there as well. But pursuing ice carving as an art form? It hadn’t crossed his mind — until about five years ago.
"I ran into a friend of mine who is one of the carvers from Calgary and he asked me if I wanted to try," Andrew remembers. "He let me borrow a few of his tools and he gave me one of his ice blocks to try it out."
Andrew spent the entire day carving a little beaver out of one block of ice.
"And from that moment on, I fell in love with it."
"The magic of seeing the sculptures come together, from just a block of ice to a beautiful piece of art, is so special," says Kristina Macdonald, the Events Director for Tourism Banff & Lake Louise.
She says there is something uniquely special about carving at Lake Louise. "I just feel so lucky to have seen that art in those moments of time in that beautiful place. It makes for a really beautiful memory."
The festival has been hosted at Lake Louise since 1984. This year the festival will be an exhibition rather than a competition, a change that Kristina says will mean carvers have more time to interact with guests. Another change for this year — all the ice carvers are Canadian.
"It is a beautiful location with the big mountains. The sculptures are fairly sheltered from the sun, there are usually consistently cold temperatures," she said. "It is a world-class ice carving location."
For Andrew and his fellow carvers, Ice Magic is a celebration of artistry and community.
Carvers often work in teams of two, agreeing to a sketch of what the finished work will look like. They are given a set amount of ice blocks (each of which weighs 200-300 lbs!) and set to work, starting with stacking the heavy blocks in the general shape of the sculpture.
"The main tool that we use is our electric chainsaw," Andrew says. "It is the tool we use to start to do the initial shapes." Next comes the more specialized tools like grinders, chisels and even a blowtorch to polish the ice and make it gleam.
When onlookers stop by to ask him how they keep the blocks of ice together, he busts out his best dad-joke answer: "Igloo."
In truth, they use cold water to freeze the ice together and form a strong bond. For that, the best temperature is around -10℃.
When temperatures rise above that, it can have dire consequences for the integrity of the structure. At last year's Ice Magic Festival, for example, the unseasonably warm temperature caused a portion of Andrew's sculpture to collapse an hour before judging.
"It is pretty devastating and hard to deal with but honestly it's part of the whole experience," he says.
Video: Andrew Zoller
Video: Andrew Zoller
Below, Andrew shares how a sculpture comes together from sketch to progress to finished product:
"People always ask me: 'Why do you do it? it's just going to melt.' But I think there's something cathartic about the process," Andrew says.
"We spend hours and days and put a lot of our heart and soul into these sculptures and these creations with the kind of acceptance that, in the end, you just have to let it go."
Photo: Andrew Zoller
Photo: Andrew Zoller
You can follow along on Andrew's Ice Magic journey through his Instagram account @chillychisels
The Ice Magic Festival at Lake Louise is part of the annual SnowDays Festival in Banff National Park. It takes place each year in January. The 2025 event takes place January 17 - Feb 2.
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