French artist Simon Beck creates these incredible, intricate patterns by walking through the snow wearing snowshoes. Katie Hosmer writes via mymodernmet.com:

Along the frozen lakes of Savoie, France, he spends days plodding through the snow in raquettes (snowshoes), creating these sensational patterns of snow art. Working for 5-9 hours a day, each final piece is typically the size of three soccer fields! The geometric forms range in mathematical patterns and shapes that create stunning, sometimes 3D, designs when viewed from higher levels.

Beck describes how he started:

It started as a little fun after skiing one evening. Back in 2004 I was still taking orienteering seriously and used to train in the forests in the valley or hike up the Aiguille Rouge, the mountain above Arc2000 after the lifts closed in the evening. One day I couldn’t be bothered but wanted a little exercise, and I got my Silva type 54 compass I use for surveying orienteering maps and went onto the little snow covered lake outside the building I live in, plotted 5 points in a pentangle; and joined them up to make a star. I then filled in the 15 triangles that resulted and later added some circles and the result was impressive especially as there is a nearby chair lift that gives a bird eye view of the lake. When fresh snowfall covered the design I did another more complicated design.

Check out Simon Beck’s facebook page for more!