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HOUGHTON -- Update:  February 9, 8:30 p.m.

The Winter Carnival celebration is in full swing at Michigan Tech as all of the statue teams scramble to finish in time.

The all-nighter teams are using whatever tricks it takes to make their statues come together.  For the month-long competition, it's all about the finishing touches and adding a lot of intricate ice detail.

Food and hot chocolate vendors have setup shop and even with the bitter cold, spectators are all around campus watching teams work.

“The students really push themselves to the limits and you see the craftsmanship; it's almost like a medieval type of craftsmanship passed down from generation to generation,” says Tech President Glenn Mroz.  “These students do things with ice that you can only imagine.”

Some of the designs are starting to show, but we won't know all the statues' true inspiration until Thursday morning.

The competition ends at eight o'clock.

Update:  February 9, 6:45 p.m.

All of the snow statues created at Michigan Tech are impressive, but at the end of the competition, only a few people can say theirs is the very best.

Members of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity know a thing or two about making statues in the snow.  For the past three years, they've taken the top prize in the fraternity category of Winter Carnival's month-long competition.  They say they've scaled things down a bit this year, though their statue is still one of the biggest.

They've added lots of little elements and are focusing more on detail.

"We do well with getting everything set up in the right place,” says Ed Duda.  “There's a lot of overlay with the pieces and everything always fits.  Nothing stands out; it's always a big picture."

Winning didn't come as easy for the Delta Zeta team.  They were thrilled to finish first among sororities last year, especially since they took third the year before.  This year they went with a bigger design even though they have fewer people to help out.

Everyone's put in a lot of time and is still hopeful they'll come out on top.

"The most important thing for how it comes out is having fun out here,” says Emily Schmidt.  “If you have a lot of people not having fun, it won't look good because no one wants to put for the effort.  Also, we have a lot of detailed stuff that comes out at midnight that really brings it all together."

Whether or not these winners repeat their victories will be determined by the judges Thursday morning.

From the looks of everyone's statues, it'll definitely be a close competition.

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There's no shortage of snow or cold this Winter Carnival, so right now time is the biggest challenge facing statue teams.  They’ve got one more night...only 14 hours left to finish.

For many teams competing in the month-long snow statue competition at Michigan Tech, this is the most important time.

Members of the Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity seem to be dividing and conquering their remaining tasks.  One brother chips away at a snow creature while another smoothes out part of the detail on a large boat.

Meanwhile the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority is using every minute they have until Thursday's eight o'clock deadline.

They have different members scheduled to work in six-hour shifts.

"We also have a detail crew that's working on the ice detail at the house right now,” says Kristen McNamara.  “And then we have a letter crew for the title block.  We're making sure everyone shows up so we have enough people out here, and we're just doing a chain assembly of buckets to keep it going."

Of course, the Winter Carnival fun is just getting started.