Finnish Snow Sculpture Competition Makes a Welcome Return

Having twice been postponed over the past two years, due to an unusual lack of snow in 2020, and the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021, it was a welcome return for the Snow Sculpture Competition, which took place on Saturday 26th February, and was held at its spiritual home of the Municipality of Juupajoki, in the Pirkanmaa region of Finland.

There are only 1800 inhabitants in Juupajoki, so an event like this is a big deal, not only for the local community, but also for the many who came from all corners of Finland, for a fun filled and somewhat wacky, family day out, and naturally, they were not disappointed, with around 3000 people attending on a gloriously sunny Finnish winters day, with a near perfect -5 degrees Celsius temperature, it was a real breath of fresh air following in the wake of all the recent Corona restrictions that we have all suffered across the world.

The event was organized by local entrepreneur organization (Juupajoen Yrittäjät) in conjunction with volunteers and local youth organization 4H.

In total 17 competitors attended to compete, with excavators ranging in size from a 1.9-tonne electric mini excavator up to a 60-tonne class hydraulic excavator. Thanks to thorough preparations by the organizers, the event “arena” as well as the piles of snow, were all in perfect condition, despite the fact that it had rained/sleet quite heavily the day before.

As previously mentioned in our pre-event blog post, the competition was split into two categories, being “Solo Class” with one excavator and operator, with as many attachments as required, with the other category being “Driver + Assistant Class”, a two-man team with only two additional tools allowed. 

The top 3 in the “Solo Class” were as follows..

1. Henri Soikka/ The Heart of Peace 

2. Petri Isotalo/ The Sphinx

3. Janne Salomaa/ The Castle

Pictured above: Winner of the solo class Henri Soikka

The winner of solo class Heart of Peace by Mr. Henri Soikka. Photo by Mervikin

Top-3  in “Driver + Assistant Class” were.. 

1. Eero Santahuhta and Olli Montonen/ The Dove of Peace

2. Risto Kantola and Ismo Frantsila/ The Ice Cream

3. Mika Ohvo and Pauli Kujala/ The Dice

Winners of 2-men-team Eero Santahuhta and Olli Montonen with Dove of Peace. 

Our friendly contact at the event spokeswoman Mervi Kinnunen said, “The Jury of five chose The Dove of Peace and The Heart of Peace to be the winners.

I guess, it was the theme of peace (in these turbulent times) that separated the winners from the rest of the master pieces”.

The event was very much, as we have come to expect from our Finnish friends, a family friendly affair, with numerous activities for kids as well including, snowmobile sleigh riding, sled hill etc. In addition, about 150 kids participated in a Mini Winter Olympics on the event site. The second largest newspaper in Finland (Aamulehti) also live streamed the event.

Several hundred additional visitors visited the site on the Sunday to see the finished art works. The local village association from Kopsamo organized activities for that day.

Checkout this video from the event below.

The Digger Man Blog would like to thank Mervi Kinnunen for supplying us with the details and Jani Taipale for photos to support this post.