Ice Snow Sandwich Towers

Ice Snow Sandwich Towers, originally uploaded by escher1.

Ice tower

Ice tower, originally uploaded by escher1.

Tower at Dawn

Tower at Dawn, originally uploaded by escher1.

Snowballs

Snowballs, originally uploaded by escher1.

Although a thaw was in full swing there was still some snow up on the tops. There is no refinement to these as I had very little time after work and before it got dark to build them. So I rushed to get them done without being as pernickerty as I would normally be. So there are lots of annoying mis-shapen parts! I was distracted by the amazing sunset behind too. See the other pictures to see what was going on behind me.

Snowball towers, originally uploaded by escher1.

Frost Leaf Patch

Frost Leaf Patch, originally uploaded by escher1.

Frost Leaf Patch

Frost Leaf Patch, originally uploaded by escher1.

My Arch is Still There

My Arch is Still There, originally uploaded by escher1.

It's been standing more than a month now, I really expected it to have fallen down by now. There is a spot where this, the egg cairn and the balance cairn are all visible. This morning the dawn sun lit them all up against the bank of fog across the hills. It looked quite spectacular.

Frosty Slabs and Ball Balance

Frosty Slabs and Ball Balance, originally uploaded by escher1.

Frosty Ball Balance

Frosty Ball Balance, originally uploaded by escher1.

Frost Stack

Frost Stack, originally uploaded by escher1.

Balance Cairn

Balance Cairn, originally uploaded by escher1.

Balance Cairn

Balance Cairn, originally uploaded by escher1.

Balance Cairn View

Balance Cairn View, originally uploaded by escher1.

My cairn has spawned some offspring

My cairn has spawned some offspring, originally uploaded by escher1.

Coloured Rock Splash

Coloured Rock Splash, originally uploaded by escher1.

Coloured Rock Splash

Coloured Rock Splash, originally uploaded by escher1.

Moon Rise Cairn

Moon Rise Cairn, originally uploaded by escher1.

Millstone Grit Cairn

Millstone Grit Cairn, originally uploaded by escher1.

I've always wanted to build a big cairn like Goldsworthy's stone cones. Obviously the design is based on his but I went for a slightly different look, I wanted the curve to be symmetrical for both the bottom and top sections. I think I have achieved that to some degree. The first two attempts collapsed early on but the third worked. I had to pay more attention to making sure that long, large and heavy stones are placed often enough, to anchor the small stones on the outside. These long stones are positioned like spokes all the way through the cairn. When it was nearly done there was a loud crack as a stone snapped in the middle. My heart was in my mouth as it shifted and settled but it held. I could only spend a few hours each day building the cairn so it wasn't until the third day that I completed it. THis was a couple of hours into a big storm that dropped 2 inches of rainfall and brought 80mph winds. This meant that I couldn't film or photograph the finished cairn. Instead I had to leave in a hurry thoroughly drenched, hoping that it would stay up to be documented on a calmer day. Fortunately it has and I managed to get some pictures and film the day after I finished it.

Millstone Grit Cairn, originally uploaded by escher1.

Arch

Arch, originally uploaded by escher1.

Arch

Arch, originally uploaded by escher1.

Cherry Leaf Circle

Cherry Leaf Circle, originally uploaded by escher1.

Pebble Fade

Pebble Fade, originally uploaded by escher1.

Leaf Square

Leaf-Square, originally uploaded by escher1.