Finns attempt to build world’s largest ‘ice carousel’ to warn of climate change

A group of Finns are trying to build this weekend an “ice carousel”, the largest in the world, after several weeks of snow removal and cut a large circle of ice with a chainsaw that will initially spin on a frozen lake.

The feat takes place in the great Lake Lappajärvi, in the west of the country, and is the work of the Finnish inventor Janne Käpylehto, who claims to have conceived the idea in a viral video posted in 2017. To date, Käpylehto has built more than 60 carousels.

How it works? As soon as this circular surface is clear of snow and fully trimmed, a boat motor will hook up, spinning it around in the middle of the glacial landscape.

Since the publication of the video, the idea was copied in increasingly large “carousels”, to the point that the Guinness Book of Records has dedicated a category to it.

“It’s pretty crazy”, admitted AFP Käpylehto, whose team had to start by removing 40 cm of snow on a circle of more than 900 meters in perimeter and 300 meters in diameter.

Currently, the record is held by an American from Minnesota, who built an “ice carousel”228 meters in diameter.

To enter the book, the circle must make at least one full turn on itself, which its creators hope will happen between this Sunday and Monday. The main difficulty is to create a perfect circle that does not block the rotation.

“If it is not perfectly circular, the merry-go-round does not turn”, explains Thor-Fredric Karlsson, one of the project assistants.

Inside the large circle of Lappajärvi, the team cut out a smaller circle, which will be powered by an electric boat motor, while the large part needs a gasoline engine.

The municipality gave its support to the project to alert on the fact that Nordic winters are getting shorter and shorter due to climate change, pointing out that the lakes freeze less and less.

(With information from AFP)

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