ice project

After the disappointing first two years of 'Iceman' Roger Hanson's ice project as part of the Superior Ice Festival, the future of his planned third year in 2017 came into question during the Superior City Council's May meetings.

'Iceman' Roger Hanson is on Barkers Island once again this year, attempting to create a world-record ice structure for the second year in a row. Following uncooperative weather and a premature collapse last year, Hanson is making another run at things this winter...

Last year we followed the Ice Project from ground up, back to ground again, back up, and finally back to ground again.  It's a soap opera of the elements of Lake Superior and the unpredictable weather we experience here in the Twin Ports.  So this year, let's follow it again.

Last winter Barkers Island took on a seasonal resident and a project meant to be the centerpiece of winter activities in Superior. As the cold temperatures of this winter have (finally) arrived, so has 'Iceman' Roger Hanson, looking to begin a new ice project.

It fell over when it wasn't supposed to, now Iceman Roger says his second try at the 2015 Superior Ice Project "just will not go down."

This last weekend was a Valentines Day Festival at the Ice Project at Barkers Island Festival Park.  If you missed that show (complete with fireworks), there is another two events scheduled!

After the highly publicized collapse of the first structure, Roger Hanson has been back at it trying to salvage something out of the project for the events surrounding it at Barkers Island.  Here's where it is now.

On Tuesday morning the Ice Sculpture at Barkers Island came crashing down.  It just so happens that a writer, Mitch Miller, from the New York times was doing a story on the project when disaster struck.  Here is his take on what happened as an outsider to our small city.

Just before 10:06 this morning the Superior Ice Project reached a new height of 66 feet before collapsing into a pile of ice 15 feet tall, here is the video of that incredible collapse.

The massive wall of ice at Barkers Island in Superior Wisconsin has crumbled down as of this morning.  The project was expected to reach 90 feet wide and 75 feet high by mid February.  There hasn't been comment yet on why the failure happened, but one could speculate that the odd weather temperature changes could have something to do with it.

Last night I drove by the wall of ice at Barker's Island to see how far it's come along.  Here's where it is at now, and click thru to see a comparison.