Danny Spangler: The Ice Whisperer

Ice sculptures. Chances are you’ve seen these creations at most formal shindigs, like weddings and anniversary parties. They are usually indoors, in a vat of ice, on the end of a buffet table. But at Sun Valley, ice sculptures take on a whole new form; they are larger than life snow creations like polar bears, sleighs, and singing quartets. The man behind the jaw dropping works of snow is none other than Boise native and master of the ice, Danny Spangler.

Plum recently chatted with Spangler while he is up in McCall working on snow sculptures for the city’s annual Winter Carnival. This year, Spangler has been commissioned to do six pieces in the theme “The Wild, Wild West.” His creations? A mountain man pulling a sled through a mountain pass, a large cougar head, a miner panning for gold whose nose is a whopping eight feet tall, and a large helicopter for Life Flight with cowboy boots and spurs where the runners would normally be.

When he’s not off competing in ice contests, Spangler spends most of the year in Boise working with clear ice, making swans, vases and other more conventional glasswork. His snow sculptures are a recent development, and instead of ice they are made from wet, packed snow. They can be several feet tall and wide and cost multiple thousands of dollars, depending on size and the time it takes to build

His biggest client is, of course, Sun Valley. If you’ve been around Sun Valley Village at all this winter, his work is not hard to miss. Spangler’s favorite project, however, was for Kipp Nelson’s New Year’s Eve party two years ago. The theme was ice so Spangler, along with a friend from back east, built ice bars, ice cocktail tables, ice coffee tables and ice sculptures galore. Picture a yard full of Greek gods and goddesses, as well as an ice replica of Michelangelo’s David standing tall outside Nelson’s front door.  Not a bad entrance.

Spangler spent the first twenty years of his life as a chef in Boise. It was not until a friend who owned the business, Ice-Is-Nice, invited him over for dinner and ice carving one winter night. The first thing Spangler carved was a swan with a chainsaw. He was, in the words of his friend, “a natural with a chainsaw.” Slowly, he started doing more and eventually became the owner of Ice-Is-Nice. Eleven years later, he’s still blowing people away with his ice work. As for cooking professionally, he has never looked back.