For the 24st annual event, sixteen teams from around the globe have been invited to compete from 13 countries: Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Mexico, Mongolia, Russia and USA.

Attendees of the Breckenridge International Snow Sculpture Championships will be able to see the artists at work Jan. 21-25, 2014 when teams work with machine-made blocks of Colorado snow weighing some 18,144 kilograms and standing roughly 3.6 meters tall.

Team Lithuania will compete in this festival for the 2nd time.

According to gobreck.com, Team Lithuania started competing in snow sculpture competitions in 2006. Since then, team Lithuania has competed in Breckenridge’s Snow Sculpture Championships in 2010, as well as in the International Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan in 2009, 2011, 2012.

During that time they were able to win 5th, 3rd and 2nd place and a Grand Prix as well as winning the Grand Prix and the Children’s Choice award here in Breckenridge.

Leading team Lithuania’s this year is team captain Kestutis Lanauskas. Other team members include Mindaugas Jurenas, Arturas Burnelka, and Tomas Petreikis

For this years event team Lithuania will be creating Once Upon A Time Here Was A Forest.

The sculpture is meant to give light to the fact that much of the world’s precious forests are disappearing and becoming extinct at an unprecedented rate because of human activities, and if the forests disappear, inevitably we will follow their path. “Shall we let it happen?” they ask according to gobrek.com

Follow their progress during the competition January 21 – 25, 2014 on www.gobreck.com.

See what you will experience if you come for a visit in a video of the 2012 Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships bellow.

Snow carving in Breckenridge began as a local pastime during the town’s winter carnival – Ullr Fest – in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The founders of Breckenridge’s International Snow Sculpture Championships are still members of Team Breckenridge and today, the event is attended annually by more than 30,000 people.