The making of snow sculptures

When comparing to traditional buildings, how are these large snow sculptures, which are about four to five stories tall, made?
We will take a close look at the process of making the large snow sculptures for the Sapporo Snow Festival.

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  1

  Snow Collecting

  Clean snow is collected at snow dumping sites around Sapporo.

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  2

  Snow Piling

  The snow is brought to the sites. It takes approximately 600 truckloads of snow to make one large snow sculpture.

• 
  3

  Scaffolding Assembly

  Scaffolding is erected and the hauled snow is piled up using large heavy machinery.

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  4

  Foundation Building

  Once piled, the snow foundation is laid down and left to settle for a few days in order to stabilize the snow.

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  5

  Rough Sculpting

  After the snow is stabilized, the rough sculpting process is carried out.

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  6

  Detailed Sculpting

  Afterwards, the detailed sculpting process is started.

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  7

  Night Work

  Fine detailing is done at night.

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  8

  General Completion

  The snow sculpture is almost complete, but the real work begins now.

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  9

  Finishing Touches

  The detailed finishing touches are carried out by adding parts that were prepared in advance.

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  10

  Completion!

  The snow sculpture is now complete and ready to be enjoyed by everyone.