Finns hold snow sculpting competition with machines

by Nick Drew | Thu 28 Mar 2019

Finns hold snow sculpting competition with machines

A number of machinery dealers in Finland recently held a competition to see who could do the best art work in snow, using a hydraulic excavator.

Our Finnish cousins have a reputation for some doing crazy things, for starters there is the national obsession with the sauna, with most homes and workplaces having access to one, then there is the annual wife carrying competition, where competitors have to carry their wives over a 253.5 metre assault course, for a chance to win the wife’s weight in beer! There's the air guitar competitions and not forgetting the ice swimming contests which see’s competitors plunging into freezing cold water in a race that is probably followed by a warming visit to the aforementioned sauna!

One of the latest crazy things is snow sculpting using excavators and the latest edition of this took place recently in Juupajoki, in the Pirkanmaa region of Finland. One organisation who was taking part was Suomen Telekone Oy who are the main Hyundai dealers in Finland and as I understand it, were providing some machines to be used in the event.

Whilst I am sure there were many stunning examples of snow sculpture at this event, we have only been able to find these photos of the winning entrant, courtesy of Suomen Telekone Oy’s Facebook page.

The guy responsible for this work of art was Jari Niemelä who carved out this stunning polar bear using a Hyundai HX140L fitted with a hydraulic rotary cutting head attachment.

Also taking part was Risto Kantola with his stunning Liebherr R 936 Compact hydraulic excavator. The 35 tonne machine features a factory finished blue livery and is the first of its kind to be sold in Finland.

I think you will agree, its impressive stuff and we thank Suomen Telekone Oy and Risto Kantola for allowing us to use the photos contained in this blog post.

This post reminded me of one I did back in 2010 with lads building a snowman with diggers, which was one of the first featuring Michael Bullock who was to go on to be our "Englishman Down Under". Michael is now an internet sensation in his own right with his The English Earthmover account on Instagram attracting 52.1k followers.

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