Yukon snow carvers mourn Mike Lane, 'our tool guy'

Don Watt, a member of Yukon's celebrated team of snow carvers, says his friend and fellow carver Mike Lane who died earlier this week, in Whitehorse struggled with dementia in recent years, but still travelled with the team to international competitions.

"He shovelled snow, and he knocked corners off of things, and we helped him do chiseling and tooling of things.And every once in a while, he'd just smile and say, 'Don, this is the greatest day of my life,'" Watt recalled.

"He's going to leave a big hole in the carving community, and a big hole in people's hearts around the world."

For decades, Watt and Lane spent every winter travelling the world to practice a highly-specialized craft snow sculpture. They'd start with a large, solid block of snow and spend hours carving elaborate, creative designs.

Over the years, the team won many awards and plenty of admirers.

"Mike was our tool guy," Watt said. "What he did was, he would rummage through other teams'tool boxes and say 'hey, what does this tool do?'

"Our tool kit expanded by him rummaging through other people's kits."

'A pretty diverse guy'

Watt credits Lane with helping reign in Watt'smore impressionistic impulses, and design forms and sculptures that people couldrecognize and respond to.

"I think that's why we did so well we worked together so well," Watt said. "He started cleaning up my sculptures, and we started winning awards."

Lane made his living as owner/operator of a carpet cleaning franchise in Whitehorse, but Watt says he was a "pretty diverse guy," with a strong artistic bent. Lane was a skilled watercolour painter as well as a carver, Watt says.

He says Lane's skills suffered in recent years as his health deteriorated, but the snow carving team refused to leave him behind while they travelled to competitions.

"We worked as a team to keep him active and involved, because he for 20-plus years kept me active and involved in the art form," Watt said.

"He said that he worked 10to 11 months of the year so he could go for a month, or two months, carving snow. It was a passion with him, as much as it was with me."