The Miss Snow Universe beauty pageant took place in Novosibirsk for the first time as part of the World Snow Forum.
The Miss Snow Universe beauty pageant took place in Novosibirsk for the first time as part of the World Snow Forum.
Vladislava Verner, a first-year student at Tomsk State University, won the competition. In summer 2013 Miss Snow Universe will represent Russia at the Miss Tourism international beauty pageant.
The top three winners of the competition were awarded photo-shoots in the Bahamas and other prizes.
Vladislava Verner, center, wants to become a model, but does not plan to drop out of school, either.
The First Vice Miss Yulia Teslina, left, is from Novosibirsk. She is 18 years old and studies at the Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management.
The title of Second Vice Miss went to Alisa Usoltseva from Udachny, Yakutia. Alisa is 19 years old and studies in Novosibirsk.
The People’s Choice Award went to 18-year-old Elmira Abdrazakova, left, from Mezhdurechensk in the Kemerovo Region. Elmira is very fond of figure skating, which, as she says, is why she loves winter.
The pageant drew the most beautiful young women from 30 northern cities. There were 100 candidates auditioning for each place in the final competition, including participants from almost all Siberian cities: Surgut, Yakutsk, Yekaterinburg, Tobolsk, Kazan and Ufa (Bashkiria). Only 20 women made it to the final round.
The competition’s first round had the participants, dressed in snow-white dresses, speak about themselves and about why they like winter.
The most extreme and trying task was to take part in a bikini photo shoot outside the Novosibirsk Expocenter, with temperatures dropping below minus 20 degrees Celsius.
But People’s Choice winner Elmira Abdrazakova, left, said the adrenaline rush helped her fight the cold.
The other participants did not complain either, saying that being born in Siberia means they are not afraid of the cold and are ready to face such extreme challenges.
