A Manitoba family has officially created the largest snow maze anywhere in the world, according to the Guinness World Records.
The family-operated âA Maze in Snowâ attraction in St. Adolphe, Man., opened to the public back in January. For the past several weeks, flocks of people have been getting lost in the snow labyrinth.
As of Monday, owner Clint Masse said recognized his familyâs amazing feat: their maze is a whopping 2789.114 square metres in size.
âWeâre all pretty excited -- absolutely. It was great,â he told CTVNews.ca over the phone
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Masse and his wife, Angie, began the record verification process on Feb. 10, which involved meticulous measuring and annotated video recordings by a professional land surveyor.
âWe knew that we had the right size [to earn the world record], but I mean, there is a lot of organization and hoop jumping to get the âGuinness Book of World Recordsâ people to actually accept your submission,â he lamented.
âSo once they said âyes,â we were like, âyeah!ââ he laughed.
Heâd spent the past few weeks corresponding with officials via email, so he was taken aback with Monday morningâs announcement email.
âI just read âcongratulations,â and then I didnât even read the rest,â Masse joked, adding he received the physical Guinness World Record certificate this afternoon.
But building large mazes is nothing new for the Masse family. They operate the âA Maze in Cornâ which is a seasonal corn maze theyâve built every year since 1998.
But this year, they wanted to set their sights on something more.
'Itâs going to be a ton of work, but we can do this'
Late last fall, the family and their staff looked up how big the existing record holder was and ultimately began designing their own bigger one.
âOne of my staff members, who kind of forwarded the idea, said, âItâs going to be a ton of work, but we can do this,ââ Masse recalled, adding he then posed the challenge to his wife.
âAnd the consensus was: letâs try. Letâs go straight for the biggest [snow maze] in the world,â he said.
According to Guinness World Records, the largest snow maze in existence had been the 1,696-square-metre maze at Fort William Historical Park in Thunder Bay, Ont.
On Dec. 10, they broke ground and for three weeks, they used a snow machine to create enough packing snow. And then, another three weeks to actually build the maze.
They finished it on Jan. 5 and Masse hired surveyors from the engineering firm Barnes and Duncan to conduct the measurements.
Now, armed with their large Guinness World Record certificate adorning the entrance of their maze, Masse said theyâll be enjoying their reign as long as the weather will allow.
âWeâre not going to survive any amount of thawing temperatures, so itâs going to be the end in two weeks,â he said referring to the upcoming warmer weather.
Because the family knows all records are meant to be broken, theyâre already planning designs to improve for next year -- including larger pathways.
âThis year, we had a few sculptures in there and we were surprised that those were so attractive to people, that we want to do more art work, next year too,â he said. âWeâd also really like to try an ice hotel -- a covered room made out of snow.â