In Stillwater, Minnesota, the hometown team of snow sculptors just walked away with 1st place in the World Snow Sculpting Championships, beating several nations and winning $4,000.

Siblings Dusty and Kelly Thune and friends made up the team, monikered the "House of Thune," who carved a raw expression of adversity and challenge called "Journey."

The team used custom homemade tools to sculpt their work of art from 10 tons of snow.

"It felt pretty surreal being up there on the stage," snow sculptor Kelly Thune told FOX 9 on Sunday. "There were so many pieces this year that I thought deserved to win it, that I didn't expect it."

"When you hear the People's Choice get an award, and then you hear third place, second place, and you think ‘aw man, ours didn't make it,' but then they said our name and we just about lost it," said Kelly's brother Dusty.

Teams from Finland, Turkey, Germany, Ecuador, Canada, and Argentina represented their nations at Stillwater with some captivating pieces of seasonal art, but it was the home team that took the grand prize.

"Journey" captures the adversity faced by everyone in moments of their life, but particularly one of their team members, who suffered a loss of $80,000 in property as well as a significant amount of his life's work, after a fire consumed his art gallery in preparation for the contest. The team set up a GoFundMe to try and help him recover.

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For another two weeks or so, all the sculptures will still be at the tournament grounds in Stillwater, weather permitting, and offer a great reason to get out of the house during such a cold winter up north that has had so many people sheltering and snuggling in their homes.

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