
Meet Steve
Steve Mercia is the owner and founder of Snow Creations LLC which provides the management and operations for the Colorado Snow Sculpting Championship.

Meet Randy
Steve met Randy Ames at a camping trip to Glendo Resevoir in Wyoming the summer of 2000. It was an overcast, chilly morning and Steve’s two young sons needed something to do. So, Steve, Randy, and the two boys teamed up and started making a "sand castle” – which transformed into a 6 foot diameter sand turtle. After about an hour into it, the sun came out and the kids were in the water swimming, leaving Randy and Steve to complete the turtle on their own. It was at that point a friendship between artists was born.

US Nationals 2001
Randy was one of the founding fathers of the Breckenridge snow sculpting event and had already traveled around the world competing in various events. He showed Steve some pictures of pieces he had created and it looked like fun to Steve. They ended the camping trip with discussions about working together at a future sculpture event and a promise to keep in touch.
Six months later in February 2001, the US Nationals were gearing up for their sculpture competition but was short some teams. Randy had competed at US Nationals before and they reached out to Randy to see if he could bring a team. Randy contacted Steve and invited Steve to join him at the competition. Their sculpture was inspired by the Disney movie Aladdin. That was Steve's first snow carving experience and from that point forward, Steve was hooked.

Statue of Liberty & Birth of a Nation
In January 2002, Steve went to Breckenridge with Randy where their sculpture team carved the hand and flame of the Statue of Liberty and took 3rd place.
Then, when the time for the US Nationals (February 2002) came around, Randy couldn't get time off from work. So, Steve became a first-time Team Captain and formed his own team with Randy's dad, Ron, and Steve's brother, Trent, to compete. They carved Betsy Ross sewing the American flag, "Birth of a Nation".

A Sculpture Event is Born
From 2002 to 2009, Steve participated in various sculpture events in the US and around the world, including in Italy and Japan. Through those experiences, Steve saw what a snow event could do for a community and thought his then-current hometown of Loveland, CO would be a good fit for an event. Steve approached several people and organizations starting in 2008 to start a snow sculpture event in Loveland. And after much discussion and planning, in Dec. 2010 the 'Snow Sculpture in the Dark' event was born.

In Search of Colder Climes
The snow sculpture event was held in Loveland, CO until 2016 when it was moved to a new host town, Berthoud, CO. And while Loveland and Berthoud were both excellent host locations, the unpredictable weather conditions at their elevations made snow making and snow sculpting a challenging endeavor.
A search for a new location at a higher elevation was begun in 2022 after the December 2021 event had to be postponed due to persistent above-freezing temperatures. Of the various options, the Town of Fraser, CO stepped up and became the event's current host location.