Ottawa (Feb 21/05) - Just at the beginning of Winterlude, a recent snow carving event in Ottawa, the team from Prince Edward Island, one of the frontrunners, leafed through a list of entries, checking out their competition.

When they saw the Nasogaluak brothers on the list, they reportedly groaned, "Oh no, Team NWT's coming."

Eli, Bill and Joe Nasogaluak of Tuktoyaktuk stand in front of their entry in the National Snow Sculpture competition in Ottawa last week. Their 16-foot-high sculpture of a sea goddess and a shaman won second prize and the artists' choice award. - photo courtesy of Eli Nasogaluak

If the Northwest Territories has a reputation on the national snow carving circuit, it's mainly due to the skill of the Nasogaluak brothers of Tuktoyaktuk.

"We've worked together for so long, we know our strong points," said Eli Nasogaluak.

"We know what we can do," he continued.

In the end, Team PEI won the event but team NWT took home the second place trophy, as well as the artists' choice award. First prize was $1,500 and $500 in VIA Rail credit for each team member. The second place team won $1,000 per member. Eli said they don't spent much time thinking about their history at nationals. But the organizers put signs up in front of each team's working area, listing their accomplishments.

"We were reading our own bios and thought 'Wow,'" said Eli.

Though Bill, Joe and Eli have only represented the NWT at the Ottawa competition for the past five years, they have earned a total of three second place finishes, three artists choice awards and one first place trophy.

To become Team NWT each year, they submit their idea for their sculpture entry, along with sketches.

Eli said he wished there were more opportunities for artistic sport within the NWT. Competition spurs artists to try new things and improve.

And a territory-wide snow sculpting competition would be a better way of selecting the team, he said.

The national competition releases the following year's theme each November. Then the brothers put their heads together to come up with a design all three of them are happy with.

"That's usually the toughest part," said Eli.

Each team gets a 12 foot by 12 foot block of snow, 16 feet high, to work with.

Teams can actually add snow extensions to make their final creation up to two feet higher and a foot wider on either side.

The teams are allotted a total of 50 work hours over five days. After the first short day, they work from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. until they are done. The rules allow them to use one power tool. The rest of their tools are homemade. The Nasogaluaks have designed their own snow carving tools - large curved blades attached to hockey stick handles.

"Once we have a piece roughed in, we work individually on different sides," he said.

They either work top to bottom, or bottom to top, finishing as they go.

This year's sculpture was of the sea goddess Sedna - or Auknukpuq in Inuvialuktun -releasing birds and other animals from her hair as a shaman beats a drum to appease her.

One of the aspects the judges award points for is technical difficulty - perhaps balancing a heavy sculptural detail on a delicate base.

"You're meant to challenge the snow," said Eli.

It's only got to stay in one piece until the judges see it. If something falls off afterwards, that's fine.

But if it falls off before the judges get to it, the artists have to whip up a bucket of "glue," snow that's close to melting and can cement parts together.

Aside from the thrill of competition and the satisfaction of creating a giant, though ephemeral, work of art, it's meeting other artists and establishing friendly rivalries that make the exhausting and muscle-straining event fun.

"There's always that competitive spirit," said Eli.

The brothers also carve ice, but Winterlude's international ice carving competition is held concurrently with the snow carving contest, making it impossible for them to enter both.

Well, there's always next year.