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Ice Palace letters made with speed and skill

It’s one of many things Martha Watts does for Winter Carnival

Lettering the Saranac Lake Winter Carnival theme title on the side of the Ice Palace has been Martha Watts’ job since 1997, making her a bit of a Carnival legend. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

SARANAC LAKE — Martha Watts caked slush onto the outside walls of the Ice Palace Thursday afternoon. She had to work fast so the letters would not turn to ice before she finished carving them.

She was sculpting the words “Myths and Legends” — this year’s Winter Carnival theme — onto the wall, capping off a 10-day effort by the Ice Palace Workers 101 to assemble the large structure.

“Only in Saranac Lake can you find people who will come and do this crazy stuff, and enjoy it,” Watts said.

Using a trowel, Watts formed the slush into a letter “s” at the end of “legends,” mimicking the old English font used on the Winter Carnival button she had pinned to her jacket.

At her feet were a sled full of snow, several buckets of water and a cooler with spray bottles full of food coloring. Watts has been doing the lettering on the Palace since 1997, so she was well prepared for the task.

People admire the inside of this year’s Ice Palace on Thursday in Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

“Billy Madden looked at me and said, ‘Hey, I got a job for you,'” Watts said. “Now I’m stuck with it.”

Watts spritzed the letters with some coloring, coating the “s” in a dark blue hue. She said she was “trying to add a little bit more color to the world.”

She had to hurry, though. The spray bottle nozzles freeze up when it is cold, so she threw it back into a cooler to keep it warm.

Watts said she is just happy this year’s theme does not have the word “Adirondack” in it, because that is always a long word to fit on the wall and she was in a hurry.

She is just trying to survive through Saturday, she said. That day she has six responsibilities: Bake for the Lutheran Church Women’s Bake Sale, make chocolate for the Paul Smith’s College Boosters without Borders Chocolate Festival, build an Arctic Golf hole, work as an Ice Palace ambassador in the morning, deliver her icicle for the longest-icicle contest at noon, and be back at the Palace for the evening fireworks, keeping people out during the show.

“It’s just all the things I do happen on one day,” Watts said.

She said there is one icicle hanging off her back porch that is, by her estimate, around as tall as she is. On Saturday she will ascend a ladder, wrap a blanket around the icicle, chip it off with a hammer and scoop it up in her arms as it drops. Then she has to descend the ladder and stuff it, whole, into her Honda Civic.

She thinks this icicle may be a good contender in the contest.

“I’ve done this many times,” Watts said. “We’ll see.”

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