By David Fleet
dfleet@mihomepaper.com
Frankenmuth — A mix of rain and snow did not dampen the efforts of area snow carving teams who recently chipped in stellar performances at Zehnder’s Snowfest in Frankenmuth Jan. 31-Feb. 2.
In their ninth season, Hometeam II, a Grand Blanc-based Christian homeschool group sent teams of high school students to the annual carving competition. This year two teams of four students coached by Angie Luke participated.
High School Team A placed sixth, sculpting a playful elephant, titled “Happy Guy.”  Team members were: Ben Harmon, Samuel Wright, Layla Foster and Leah Luke. High School Team B who placed seventh, sculpted a kneeling knight, titled “The Unbroken Knight.”  Team members were: Ben Craw, Abe Mau, Elisabeth Flint and Albanie Dowd.
The high school teams began competition at 8 a.m., Jan. 30 and were allowed to carve until 10 p.m.  The second day of carving started at 7:30 a.m, Jan. 31 and ended at 5 p.m.  Awards were given that evening at a carvers dinner.
The teams start planning for their sculptures in September, participating in a class taught by Angie Luke at Hometeam.  Sketching a drawing of the sculpture, modeling it in clay and composing a write-up about their creation are all part of the class.
The sculptors start with a block that is 8 feet tall with a 6-by-6 foot base. They are allowed to use anything they would like for carving tools, except for power tools.  Some tools used are shovels, edgers, saws, horse grooming tools, chisels and ice cream scoops. This year there were a total of 18 teams competing at this level.
A third team of graduated Hometeam students Ryan Flint, Adelyn Szatkowski and Gabriel Husted finished fifth and competed at the single block World Class Carving event. The veteran team placed first in the high school competition in 2022, sixth in the State level in 2023 and first in the State level in 2024.
The 2025 sculpture was titled “Dino Nuggets,” a Tyrannosaurus rex and chicken enjoying their love of dinosaur nuggets. They were awarded fifth place for the single block competition. Sculpting at this level started Jan. 28 and had to be completed by 10 a.m.. Feb. 1.  Between those days, carvers are allowed to work as much as they want, even through the night. Starting with a 10 feet by 10 feet by 10 feet block of snow, the team worked over 50 hours on their sculpture.