It was the day after Valentine's Day, but for a couple of University of Nevada, Reno students, the four to six inches of snow that dropped on the Truckee Meadows on Wednesday, Feb. 15, provided an opportunity to present the campus with another heartfelt gift.

Budding snow and ice artists Krystyn Kluth and Victoria Pryor apparently spent more than two hours sculpting, shaping and perhaps shivering a bit during the creation of what they dubbed "Snowwolf," located between Ross Hall and the Jones Center near the University Quadrangle.

Thanks to the efforts of Kluth and Pryor, "Snowwolf" captured the magic of the area's first significant snowfall in the month of February. What meteorologists dub an "inside slider" - a weak low pressure front that drops from the north, "sliding" along the crest of the Sierra - had quietly dropped a coating of snow on the area in the early morning hours on Wednesday.

Their work reminded everyone on campus that snow and ice can be contemplative, beautiful, and good reason to simply pause for a few moments, allowing the cold morning and the icy white wolf standing sentry near the Quad to leave all of us "without a sound, fulfilled, floating," as the late Alaskan poet laureate John Haines once wrote.

The snow was welcomed on campus, which seemed to take on a much less frenetic pace than normal Wednesday as faculty, staff and students went about their daily duties.

Claudene Wharton, media relations officer in University Media Relations, snapped this accompanying photo of "Snowwolf," noting that according to the "sign/box" that the two students left next to their creation, the hope was that "Snowwolf" would survive well beyond the two hours it had taken to bring the white wolf to life on Wednesday.

At last check Thursday morning, "Snowwolf" was still vibrant, still upright, still staring out at the Quad with gray melodious eyes, allowing the morning to gently climb its limbs, just as its talented creators had intended.