Ice and snow church wow winter lovers

A record-breaking Manitoban snow maze is offering a snow-sculpted church this winter, steeple and all. 

Clint Masse owns and runs The Snow Maze at A Maze in Corn with his family 10 minutes south of Winnipeg.

This is the Masses' fourth time running a snow maze, and it opened for the season on January 22, 2022. The maze continues to hold the Guinness World Record for the largest snow maze in the world. 

The snow maze is featuring a new structure this year, a church building made of snow and ice. 

"Lyle Peters is the artist involved with the snow church," says Masse. "He wandered in four seasons ago and said, 'I'm interested in carving something. Would you be interested in having me carve something?' I said yes. The first year we just did the maze but he did a few sculptures inside."

Peters and his family took roughly two weeks to carve the entire church. It's 24 ft long with a 20 ft steeple in front. When people walk inside, there are a few snow benches, an ice pulpit, and a 'stain glass' back wall made from blocks of ice. 

"It's a warm thing so that when you're running through the maze, you come across a snow building, it's quite a bit warmer because there's no wind inside. These snow sculptures stay as pristine as the day Lyle carves them."

Even though Southern Manitoba has had a lot more snow this year than the past two winters, the maze is mostly created from man-made snow. 

"It's more dense and it allows us to build things that are going to last longer. I think it's about six times more dense than natural snow."

Garnering Attention

While the Masse family doesn't host Sunday morning services in their snow church, it has gotten some attention from the local community. 

"We've had one couple that wants to renew their vows in there," says Masse. "Another couple said they're going to get married in St. Adolphe and wanted to do some of their pictures in there."

The Snow Maze also offers horse-drawn sleigh rides, a snow hill to sled down, a sledding luge that runs off the zip line tower, fires to warm up, snacks, and a fire entertainer on weekends.