So You Want to Build A Giant Snowman...

You’ll need lots of snow, a builder with a vision and maybe even a giant aluminum ball covered with legos.

At least that’s how Marc Aspera, who is busy building a 10-foot tall snowperson on Monday, Dec. 17,  in the base area, does it.

Marc is at Stratton this morning on assignment for CNN to build a giant snowman in the form of one of the station’s most recognizable personalities. It’s all a little easier to do in the dead of winter, and with 2 fresh inches of snow, but Marc says he can build such massive snowpeople in the middle of summer too.

Asperas at the beginning of the build. 11:40 am, 1 hour in.

Today, he’ll carve out a solid base, and start shaping snow around it to get it up to size. To make light chunks of snow he can lift, he piles snow onto an aluminum ball bolted with legos and coated with granular sand (visible at the left of the above photo) – the result of careful research and lots of testing. It's even patented.

Stop by and see the snowman go up in the base area today, and look for it on CNN on Tuesday! More photos to follow.

Asperas and snowman, at hour 2.5

The finished Snowman, in Anderson Cooper finest.
Total build & decoration time: 4.5 hours