A BASINGSTOKE stonemason told how she became a queen of the ice after she and her team returned from the 2017 International Snow Sculpture Championships.

Maya Martin was one of a select team who represented the UK at this year’s championships, which saw 16 of the world’s best snow sculpting teams do battle on the ice in Breckenridge, Colorado.

With temperatures dropping to minus 18 every night, the team of four, led by experienced team captain Ollie Annaly from Winchester, worked for 65 hours over four days to create Spiritual Beasts of the North Wind.

The piece was based on an abstract saber-toothed tiger picture and, although the team didn’t claim the coveted gold medal, Maya was pleased with the experience of competing with ice for the first time.

“It was such a positive experience doing it,” Maya told The Gazette.

“I mean it was a lot more tiring than I thought but it is billed as half-art, half-endurance so it really showed by the end of the week.

“There were so many nice people from different countries and everyone had a great time getting to know each other, which was great.

“It was my first time working with ice but it is very similar to my work with stone. Hopefully we will be back again next year.”

Sponsored by Budweiser, the annual championships saw teams try to transform 20-tonne, 12 foot tall blocks of snow into masterpieces.

The competition was this year won by China’s spectacular Mermaid piece.

Sweden came second with Mongolia’s Erdene district coming third.

“Seeing hundreds of people coming to watch was special,” Maya added.

“People would stop and chat to you about what you were working on.

“The piece ended up exactly as we wanted – a bit abstract but how it was meant to look. We pulled it off and people loved it.”

Maya holds stone carving sessions at the Granary Creative Arts Centre, Brookwood.

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