It has happened every year for more than five decades, beginning on the last weekend of January.
The city of McCall is gearing up for the 53rd annual McCall Winter Carnival that's kicking off Friday.
The 10-day event brings tens of thousands of people and millions of dollars into the city.
EVENT GUIDE: 2018 McCall Winter Carnival
The streets in McCall are lined with ice and snow sculptors as they work to put the finishing touches on the 38 sculptures that will be at this year's Winter Carnival.
John Schultz will spend 10 days working to finish his ice sculpture.
"How many hours would you say?” asked KTVB.
“Eight to 10, usually. I come in the morning when it's cold, take a mid-day break, and then work as late as I want at night," said Schultz.
This year Schultz is building a dog sled team out of ice. It’s also one of the new events this year.
"We have a brand new event this year - the McCall Ultra Challenge. It's a sled dog race. It's an Iditarod qualifier. So we're really excited,” said McCall Winter Carnival Director McKenzie Kraemer. “We've got 12 mushing teams coming into town. They'll run a 250-mile course over the course of a couple of days and see if they can't qualify for the Iditarod."
It's just one of more than 100 events Kraemer says draws people to the Winter Carnival.
"We estimate between about 50,000 and 60,000 people come to McCall over the course of 10 days, and what that does is inject about $25 million into our local economy," said Kraemer.
Businesses like Salmon River Brewing are gearing up and stocking up for the large influx of people.
"We just have our staff and tell them to rest up because it's a slog, the first weekend is literally a carnival, and it's all hands on deck, and it's our biggest weekend of obviously of the year," said Matt Hurlbutt with Salmon River Brewing.
And with five days to go, the countdown is on for Hurlbutt and Salmon River Brewing to finish their ice bar, which is made from blocks of ice harvested from Payette Lake.
"I'll be working on it from now until late, late Thursday night into the morning, maybe. Sometimes we've gone all night," said Hurlbutt.
It's a festival that helps show off everything this mountain community has to offer.
"Our hope is to then bring them back for another ski vacation this winter or for summer," said Kraemer.
As far as lodging, property management companies tell us availability is very limited so they're asking people to book sooner as opposed to later. As far as mid-week and next weekend that's a little more wide open.