A Whitehorse team of internationally-renowned snow carvers wants to represent Canada at next year's Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy.

But for now, Don Watt, Mike Lane and Gisli Balzar are content working at the end of Main Street where they're reproducing the creation that won them first place at the International Snow Carving Championships in Sapporo, Japan.

From a field of 14 teams representing 13 countries, judges picked the towering grizzly bear being held back by a stout mountie as this year's favourite at the 35-year-old competition recognized as one of the world's premier carving events.

'We were blown away,' Watt said of the victory. 'It was always one of the things to do in life, to carve snow in Sapporo.

'To actually get there was great, to win it was awesome.'

Together as a team for five years now, the trio will be hosting but not competing in the Air Canada Snow Carving Challenge as part of the next week's Sourdough Rendezvous festivities.

In addition the local team of Tim Cant, Al Dobbs and Ian Jim, carvers are expected from five provinces and Alaska. Air Canada is also flying a team in from Japan, with the assistance of the Japanese branch of the Canadian Tourism Council. And if Watt has his way, the city's annual winter celebration will become an international destination for snow carvers around the world.

He's already requested accreditation from Juhani Lillberg of the International Snow Carving Association. It's Lillberg whose word people take when it comes to what events are recognized as bona fide international competitions.

By the end of this year, Watt added, he wants to have the Sourdough Rendezvous competition listed among the international events.

'And I expect to have e-mails from teams all over the world wanting to come here.'

In front of the White Pass Depot this morning sits a clunky hunk of snow with chunks missing here and there, like a disheveled Rubik's cube. It's quite difficult to imagine a finished work of art with detail fine enough to rank 'Holding Back the Wilderness' number one in Sapporo.

Watt predicts, however, that after 30 hours of carving, the team will have recreated its creation.

The idea for the piece began at a kitchen table. As a team representing Canada, they felt the theme should be Canadian.

What could be more Canadian than a grizzly bear? But how do you get a 12-foot tall grizzly bear made out of snow to stand up? You add a nine-foot tall RCMP officer, making the piece even more Canadian, while building a third anchor point to handle the weight distribution.

Watt said in his 16 years carving snow, he's only had two pieces fall over, the most recent being half the piece the team put together for one of two competitions they attended in Italy on their way to Sapporo.

Watt said he'd gone up high to finish some detail work on Phil Esposito, the famous NHL player who led the Boston Bruins to two Stanley Cup championships. Esposito, said Watt, was featured going around a defenceman.

But as he climbed on Esposito's head and stretched over to put the finishing touches on an elbow, it collapsed. Had Lane been where he was just seconds earlier, and not out checking on the progress, the weight of the sculpture would have landed on him, either hurting him bad or worse, said Watt.

Had the large pieces hit Balzar as they broke apart, he too could have been seriously injured. As it was, it knocked over the scaffolding Balzar was on but he too was uninjured. Watt rode the falling snow to the ground, and was uninjured.

Though the piece failed, the team did leave Italy with the artist's choice award for the hockey goalie they carved in the first Italian competition.

Knowing weight distribution, having the necessary anchor points to support a piece that involves appendages like a bear's forearm and paw hanging out in mid-air, is essential, Watt explained.

On paper, Watt's the team captain, because somebody has to be the team captain responsible for booking flights and team administration.

In reality, all three carvers are captains, each leading three distinct phases of the effort.

Watt's forte is his ability to stare down a huge block of snow and know where to start cutting away the excess.

'I am an impressionist artist, and my ability is that I can look at the block and see the sculpture inside, or an impression of it,' he said. 'My job is too lead the other two team members as we open up the block.'

Lane commits the team to what the sculpture will really look like; he'll lead the team in fashioning the elbow, sizing and shaping the head, and so forth, Watt said.

And then Balzar takes over.

'He is our detail person,' he said. 'He does that fine detail work, that fine carving that I think gives our pieces life.

'Three captains, at three different steps. We found by listening to each other when their expertise is called into play, we end up with a better piece.'

Watt, Lane and Balzar presented Mayor Ernie Bourassa with the winner's flag from Sapporo at Monday night's city council meeting.

It will stay there for a year, until the team returns to Sapporo to defend their championship.

Hopefully, they'll bring the flag back for another year, Watt told city council.

While a return to Sapporo is already planned, the team would like nothing better than to represent Canada at a snow carving competition during next winter's Olympics.

Watt said the B.C. team they placed a close second to in Quebec last month is suggesting it has earned the right to be the nation's representative in Italy by virtue of last month's win.

The Yukon team, however, expects teams from different countries will be chosen through an application process, whereby a team is selected for its presentation of the carving it proposes, and the team's experience.

It was through a similar process that Watt, Lane and Balzar were chosen for the Sapporo competition, as is the norm for most international competitions.

But for now, the internationally-renowned snow sculpting team continues to toil away in front of the train depot, bringing life to the snarling grizzly bear held back by the stoic mountie with the addition of a dog King.

Next's week's Rendezvous carving competition will be held in the parking lot of the Elijah Smith Building.

As the major sponsor of the event, Air Canada will be flying teams in from Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and B.C. Two teams will be coming from Alaska. There will also be the Japanese team, and the local squad led by Cant.