* * * high on a secluded colorado mountaintop , laughter rang out often during a long winter afternoon , startling the squirrels who watched from the trees while two humans shattered the peace , cavorting like children in the snow , chasing each other around trees , flinging a barrage of snowballs , and then got down to the business of completing a snowman that , when finished , resembled no other snowman in the annals of recorded history .