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The Great Snow Battle of Laiuse, Feb 2006
Re-enactment of a snow battle fought more than 300 years ago on the same spot



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The defenders didn't really appreciate having their wall poured down their necks. The defenders REALLY didn't appreciate that! Another wave of attackers approaching! Some of the heavyest snowfighting this place has seen in the last 300 years. An attacker tries a new strategy - slamming into the wall. The air is thick with the dust of exploding snowballs. A defender gets ready to Not exactly the warmest of welcomes. The defenders have been pushed out of their positions from behind their defensive walls, but they are determined to take back the positions they lost. Yet another wave of attackers. A heroic attacker is greeted by a hailstorm of snowballs. Closing in. Attackers have been forced to crouch on the other side of the wall, waiting for the defenders to run out of ammunition.
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Event - The Great Snow Battle of Laiuse ("Laiuse Lumelahing"). Apparently the King of Sweden Karl XII ordered his troops to stage a huge snowfight when he and his army stayed at the Laiuse castle during the winter of 1701. The King of Sweden was in the middle of waging war against Russia at the time, but a brief recess in the war allowed him to try out some new strategies he had thought of whilst also allowing his soldiers to have some fun in the process. In honour of this rather curious historical event - a massive and coordinated snowfight involving a whole army - the Laiuse Snow Battle now takes place in the very same spot (in the midst of the ruins of the former Laiuse castle) more than 300 years later.

Photography - At first I thought I'd be the modern photo-journalist with my 55-200mm Sigma zoom lens, covering the event from a safe distance. I couldn't resist the temptation though. It was a gamble to go into the middle of a huge snowbattle with a completely unprotected camera, but there's no denying that a true frontline photographer covers a battle from the trenches. It was rather hopeless to try and frame a shot while trying not to get shot myself, so I had to shoot mostly blind. It was comforting to see that not even the 12mm of my new 12-24 F4 Tokina super wide angle lens was not wide enough at times. Too bad I forgot to take the circular polarizer with me - the sky in the pictures is consequently completely dull, white and gray.