Snowking hounded by Basic Black
Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jan 24/01) - As if building a castle isn't enough work, but visiting relatives, promotional work, questions from the curious, and a surging tide of national attention are leaving Snowking with less and less time for his Yellowknife Bay monarchy.
But for at least part of this sunny Sunday afternoon castle-building is the focus. A highly-technical reinforcing arch needs to go up at the entrance to the castle.
Plywood templates are used in the cutting of each block to ensure the angles are right. One visitor jokes the Snowking is getting too high-tech.
This year's castle, complete with stage, tower and skating rink, is well under way. In March it will be the site of Yellowknife's second snow castle wedding. Starting with the Block 1000 party, the castle will once again be the venue for a full winter of weekend events, like art shows, plays and film nights.
CBC's national spotlight is shining on the castle this year. A crew from the television show On the Road will be up for the second year in a row.
"Wayne's (host Wayne Rostadt) not coming up," said the Snowking, who is known during the off-season as Anthony Foliot. "It's a production issue. They came up late last year and everything was melting."
The popular Sunday radio show Basic Black is also courting the king. As the arch goes up, groups of people stop by every now and then for a look through the castle. Invariably, the children stopping by have to be dragged away.
"Where do you get all the blocks?" asks one of the youngsters. "I make a withdrawal at the snow bank," the Snowking replies.
This is the seventh consecutive year Foliot has built a snow block castle on the ice not far from the cluster of houseboats near Jolliffe Island. With the tradition comes a measure of pride. It wasn't without a little ire the Snowking read claims being made about a new snow and ice hotel in Quebec.
"They're going on the international news saying they're the only snow and ice hotel in North America," Snowking said. "That may be so, but this is the only snow motel."
Despite the chats with passersby, cell-phone calls to and from visiting relatives, setting up two carvers who drop by to work on snow blocks, and a brief appearance by a three overly-merry men on one snowmobile, the arch does go up. With it, the winter-long work-in-progress moves one step closer to completion.
