SAINT JOHN, N.B. – More than two stories tall and with a traffic cone for a nose, a huge snowman rises from the middle of a frosty ball field in this Atlantic Canada city.
The frigid figure was fashioned in an enterprising flurry last week.
Working alone and with only a shovel and a bucket, Chris Brake completed the towering sculpture in 55 hours, finishing last Friday as a storm raged.
At one point, a friend, Mel Speight, had to talk him into taking a break.
"I had to convince him to go home," says Speight, who posted videos of Brake building the snowman on Facebook and YouTube, and a photograph on the Weather Network’s website. "He had three inches of water in his boots."
Diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a form of autism, six years ago, Brake is relentless when he sets out to accomplish something, whether it is running a marathon or making a snowman.
"I stayed out until I was almost getting hypothermia," Brake, 28, says.
One of the most talented runners in Atlantic Canada, Brake did cartwheels once as he crossed the finish line at the New Brunswick Marathon, which he has won seven times. In a promotion, he once outran a horse.
"He gets started on something, and gets possessed," Speight says.
As a means of celebrating the year 2011, the snowman he built is 20 feet, 11 inches tall. It has eyes fashioned from dinner plates, and a series of plastic bowls forms its mouth.
"It was my new year’s resolution," he says.
At the base, his mammoth Frosty is about 20 feet around. It is so large that it has steps built into the rear, climbing all the way to the top.
"I tried to build one 30 feet tall a few years ago, but it didn’t work," he says. "I don’t think it could ever be done without help. But I get more satisfaction when I do something by myself."
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