Every year in Fairbanks, Alaska, the World Ice Art Championships takes place, and it is no cute little side hobby. Praised as one of the world’s largest ice sculpting competitions and exhibitions, the World Ice Art Championships has grown into a month-long event featuring more than 70 teams from around the world. The works are stunning and often massive in both size and visual appeal.

A swimmer competes during the UK Cold Water Swimming Championships at Tooting Bec Lido in south London January 24, 2015. (Photo by Luke MacGregor/Reuters)

Canada's Yuri Nazarkin carves Star Wars character C-3PO (R) and R2-D2 for the ice sculpture festival in Liege, Belgium, November 13, 2015. (Photo by Eric Vidal/Reuters)

A reindeer is seen as people visit ice sculptures illuminated by coloured lights at the Harbin Ice and Snow Festival to celebrate the new year in Harbin on January 4, 2017. (Photo by Nicolas Asfouri/AFP Photo)

A half-naked shrine parishioner using a wooden tub pours cold water onto himself during an annual cold-endurance festival at the Kanda Myojin Shinto shrine in Tokyo, Saturday, January 10, 2015. Pouring cold water on their bodies is believed to purify their souls. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)

Construction of the cable road on Broadway in 1891. (Photo by New York Public Library)

Daniel Filip, Tech Lead Manager for Google Maps, carries the Trekker, a 15-camera device, while mapping the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu for Google Street View in Cuzco, Peru, August 11, 2015. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/Reuters)

A view of the construction site of the Chateau de Guedelon near Treigny in the Burgundy region of France, September 13, 2016. Blacksmiths, stonemasons and quarry men are hard at work in a Burgundy forest building a 13th-century-style castle using the most basic tools and materials, replicating the methods used hundreds of years ago to better understand them. (Photo by Jacky Naegelen/Reuters)