Officials in the Town of Banff are inviting everyone to come and visit the mountain community for a new event to celebrate the season of winter.

Snow Days, which takes place in Banff National Park this weekend, had its origins in the first winter festivals in the area in the early 1900s.

“Winter carnival was something that all the locals did to celebrate winter,” says Nancy Didalt with Banff and Lake Louise Tourism. “Banff Avenue was closed, they would put ice castles up and ice carvings and our Indigenous neighbours had tipis up. They closed down Caribou Street and you could do a toboggan run down there. There was a skating rink where the stables are now. It was remarkable what went on here in the days.”

Didalt says they haven’t done quite as much as what their predecessors had, but they have kept the spirit alive.

“We wanted to take that nostalgia and really think what does it mean to take a snow day? To take a snow day conjures up that whole idea of ‘I’ve got the day off, I can play in the snow.’ So we invite everyone to come and play in the snow with us.”

One of the biggest draws of the Snow Days event is the giant snow sculptures that organizers have commissioned. It’s not the first year that they’ve had sculptures like this in the community, but it’s the first time they’ve gone all out, Didalt says.

“This year we have a total of 12 carvings; two on Norquay, six on Bear Street and three on Banff Avenue and they look fantastic.”

The sculptors come from all over the world. While they aren’t working to win a prize, the event gives them a great opportunity to show off their talents.

Peter Luccautti and his team, from Skagway, Alaska, says the sculpting project in Banff is just a great experience for him.

“We’ve been carving for about 15 years and we’ve been wanting to experience Banff. This was just such a great challenge. It is an amazing town. The level of organization here is spectacular; it’s hard to believe that this is the first time they’ve done this because it is amazing.”

He says there is a big difference between working with snow rather than ice.

“Snow is huge and ice is small, comparatively. So it’s just a different thing that I got into. I met up with the Yukon team a number of years ago and they mentored us into doing snow carvings and we just took to it and had a great time. We do it mostly for the prestige; it’s just something weird we do in the winter when things are slow in Skagway.”

The artists work with giant blocks of snow that is trucked in specifically for the event. Loaders are used to fill plywood forms and then the snow is left to compact itself into a smooth surface that can then be carved.

Shai Baxendale, with Team Yukon, says she is glad her team leader brought the team back together for the sculpture.

“Don’s calling this his ‘encore carving’. He’s been doing this for about 30 years. We decided to come down and do a carving with him and reunite the team. We’ve carved with some of these people before.”

She says that they are given three days to complete their works, but she is enjoying every minute of it.

“It’s just lovely being out here and hearing the sounds of the Bobcat and the sounds of the snow coming away from the block.”

Didalt says that if nothing else, she wants visitors to enjoy the season and enjoy the park too.

“We want to celebrate winter throughout Banff National Park. We also want to make sure that people have the best experience that they can have.”

For more information on Banff Snow Days, you can visit the official website.

(With files from Kevin Fleming)