Ice and snow, ice and snow and cold! Of course I've mentioned that Vilhelmina, or more precisely the village of Malgovik in Vilhelmina, holds the Swedish cold record of -53°C from a winter day in 1941. It hasn't been -53°C since then, but it's cold enough here, and then you simply have to make the best of the situation, celebrate the winter! We do that every year with a winter festival that we call Wilhelmina Winter Week and it all starts with us in our village taking up all the ice.
We saw and take up large blocks of ice from Lake Siksjön (just like in the Disney film Frozen) and then they are driven down to Vilhelmina where an ice church is built and tall pillars of ice are erected in the middle of the community.
In the church, there are church services, baptisms and sometimes weddings. The ice pillars are for the slightly odd competition, ice pillar sitting. Put simply, you could say that the person who sits longest on their pillar of ice wins a hefty sum. Crazy? - Maybe a little, but if you have so much ice and snow and cold, it's best to celebrate the matter instead of sulking about it.
If it gets cold, the contestants can give up quickly, it can also be a long battle, and it can become a snowstorm. Exciting, but completely without elements of sprint or spurt ;)
You can see the competition live HERE
The competition lasts until Saturday, February 17 at 3:00 PM.