It's even too cold in Calgary for the ice sculptors

CALGARY -

For most Calgarians it's been so cold it hurts to breathe, but it turns out that even for folks who make a living out of snow and ice, this whole cold snap has been a bit much.

Lee Ross is a maker of ice sculptures, but that doesn't mean he thrives when the wind chill dips to thirty below.

"I don't really like the cold," Ross said, in an interview with CTV News.

Lee Ross is a maker of ice sculptures, but that doesn't mean he thrives when the wind chill dips to thirty below.

In fact, it turns out that colder is not necessarily better for a sculptor of ice.

"Below minus 20, we can't actually freeze ice together," he said. And it gets worse. "Below minus 30," he added, "they (ice sculptures) become very brittle and tend to crack very easily."

For Ross, the trick is to find that happy middle, which is a challenge in a city like Calgary, where winter temperatures tend to vary wildly.

"It's impacted the business," he said, " but now, with that little bit of warm coming (forecasted for Sunday), it's going to be good – but it actually might get a little bit too warm, because then the ice melts."

EXTREME COLD IS AN OPPORTUNITY

Meanwhile, at Peony and Pine Studios in Airdrie, the arctic chill brought opportunity – another magical corner to keep a small business running.

That's where Cody Shepherd builds wondrously multi-coloured structures out of frozen bricks and a few drops of food colouring.

Cody Shepherd builds wondrously multi-coloured structures out of frozen bricks and a few drops of food colouring.

"The coldest day building was minus 45," Shepherd said. "And it (his ice structure) went up real quick that day for sure.

"Make sticking the blocks together really easy so I put them together with a snow and water mixture and use that like a mortar. Once it contacts the ice, they basically freeze the blocks in place instantly."

It doesn't hurt either that the structures are set against a frost-tinted backdrop.

"We get that frost in the trees and the bushes and stuff like that in the background here," Shepherd said. "It just makes everything look so magical."

Cody Shepherd builds wondrously multi-coloured structures out of frozen bricks and a few drops of food colouring.

But not for long, with above zero temperatures forecast for early next week, which just makes Shepherd appreciate the chilly beauty that much more.

"It was well worth," he said, "the freezing of body parts."