Photos by Michael R.L. Kern
An ice cannon in the Ice Alaska’s Cannon competitions fires off a tennis ball, powered by black powder.

An eager crowd gathered last weekend to watch the first in what may become an annual spectacle, the ice cannon competition at the Fairbanks Ice Park, home of the Ice Alaska World Ice Art Championships.

Teams gathered on the frozen lake and began carving what would become artillery pieces made of ice. Gathering on the shore, and on the edge of a safety rope, a growing number of spectators waited anxiously for the first team to fire their frozen weapon.

The competition involved delivering a tennis ball to a target, nearly one hundred yards away, with the use of the team-carved cannon and a charge of black powder. The goal was getting the shot to land as close to the target as possible.

The first team, the Ice Pirates, loaded their volley as the crowd drew attentively near as they could get. “Fire in the hole!” the range master shouted. Lit with a cigar, the fuse sizzled in the firing chamber. “Lighting it off with a stogie? Now that’s authentic Alaskan for ya!” a spectator said. After a tense second or two, the ball rocketed down the range as the cannon made a distinctive popping sound, followed by a thick cloud of smoke and a wild cheer from the spectators.

Ice Alaska’s doctor and security-on-scene, Robert Townsend explained that each cannon was carved from a single block of ice, weighing upwards of six-thousand pounds. The bore is sized for the tennis ball ammunition and the carving begins. The black powder charge is prepared by a professional and is the equivalent of two 12-gage shotgun shells.