Snowy season boosts northern Wisconsin tourism, but winters are becoming unreliable
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By Danielle Kaeding | Wisconsin Public Radio
Thousands of people trekked several miles across frozen Lake Superior last week for their first chance in more than a decade to see the ice caves within the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
Water seeping through the red sandstone cliffs freeze into the icy spectacle. Kayla Derheim, 38, her husband Bryan and their three kids made the trip from Duluth, Minnesota. Her daughter Macey, 11, said its icicles and frozen waterfalls were like “something out of a fairytale.”
“It’s something you don’t see anywhere else,” Derheim agreed.
Before they had kids, they last visited in 2014 when the caves went viral on social media and drew around 138,000 visitors. But since then, the area hasn’t seen the right mix of sub-zero temperatures and calm winds that make the ice safe to hike. Standing near the icy sandstone cliffs, Derheim said this winter seems better than years past.
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“It’s been more normal,” she laughed. “I feel like the last two winters had no snow.”
This year’s winter has felt “more normal” than the last several years across the Midwest, including in Wisconsin. Starting in November, big storms dumped inches of snow across the state — an earlier, deeper snow cover than in recent years, though snowfall has been below average through December and January. Most of Wisconsin has seen below normal snowfall the last two winters.
Wisconsin has been colder than normal due to a weak La Nina in December and Arctic cold blasts in January that helped boost ice cover on Lake Superior.
But in some ways, the winter of 2025-26 feels like the exception that proves the rule. For many who participate in winter activities or rely on winter tourism, a “normal” winter feels like an increasingly rare thing.
Austin Hamilton, 40, lives in the village of Lake Nebagamon. He brought his two kids to see the ice caves while they still can. He worries about long-term effects from global warming.
“I don’t think the ice caves are going to be here much longer,” he said.
Warmer winters are a crisis for some Midwest businesses
Lake Superior is among the fastest-warming lakes in the world, and maximum ice cover on the Great Lakes has dropped 25 percent between 1973 and 2023 due to climate change. Warmer air and surface water temperatures have delayed or destabilized stable ice that’s needed to safely access the caves.
In Wisconsin, winters are warming faster than other seasons, and the coldest winter temperature of the year has warmed an average of about 8 degrees Fahrenheit since 1885. That has far-reaching implications beyond just ice caves tourism.
“With winters becoming warmer in general, that means lake ice is forming a lot later. It’s potentially not as thick as what it used to be, or it’s taking longer for that lake ice to get thick,” said Amanda Latham, climate outreach specialist with the Wisconsin State Climatology Office. “There are potentially fewer days where it’s good for snowmaking at those ski resorts.”
That’s assuming they can make snow. Whitecap Mountains in Upson calls itself the snowiest ski resort in Wisconsin. The northern Wisconsin ski area has a small snowmaking system because it’s long relied on snow coming off Lake Superior, said Dave Dzubian, the resort’s owner. But two winters in a row with dramatically less snow than expected pushed that resort into bankruptcy.
“Never did we think that we were going to have one year, much less two bad years in a row,” Dzubian said.
Two years ago, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota had their warmest winters on record.
An average of 200 inches of snow dumps on Whitecap’s three peaks each year, but less than 30 inches fell during the record-warm winter. Revenues plummeted from $1.4 million during the 2022-2023 season to just around $197,000 the year after. The resort saw little improvement last season after receiving less than 60 inches of snowfall.
The lack of snow put the resort deep in debt. Midwest Skiing Company, which owns and operates Whitecap, took out a $1.8 million loan in June 2024 to keep the business afloat. But another slow season prevented the company from refinancing with its lender, Brighton Asset Management. In November, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it fights to survive another winter.
“It wasn’t a case of, there were millions and millions and millions of dollars coming in and they got mishandled,” Dzubian said. “It was a case of, there weren’t millions of dollars coming in, and there was nothing to mishandle.”
In the future, Dzubian said he plans to invest millions in snowmaking equipment. For now, the resort is making $15,000 interest-only payments to its lender, and Dzubian said they’re working on a plan with a court-appointed trustee for repayment of funds. An attorney for Brighton declined to comment.
Luckily, big snowstorms have provided a much-needed boost for Whitecap Mountains. The resort has seen more snow this season than in the last two combined. Around 500 people can stay at Whitecap, and Dzubian said they were full for Presidents’ Day weekend.
Four girlfriends from Marquette, Michigan, were staying at Whitecap just ahead of that weekend. At the top of one of its peaks, they skied off a chair lift and paused to greet Mark Sbraggia, the mountain manager.
Kim Danielson called Whitecap the Switzerland of Wisconsin, and Melani “Peeper” DePetro said she’s been dreaming of a bluebird day to ski “corduroy” or the groomed ridges on its peaks.
The group has been coming to the resort for 15 years because of the friendly staff, spectacular views of Lake Superior and lake-effect snow.
“The snow is great. It’s the best it’s been in a long time,” said Patti Ketvertis.
When the snow is good, Diane Ferzacca said there’s no place better.
“We really don’t want to promote (Whitecap) because we want it to ourselves,” she said as the four women laughed in agreement. “But we want it to stay viable. We want it to stay open.”
Whitecap isn’t the only resort that’s faced financial struggles. The record-warm winter two years ago also took a toll on the historic Lutsen Lodge on Minnesota’s North Shore. The resort’s owner Bryce Campbell faced $14 million in business debt before it burned down in 2024.
Speculation and rumors mounted in the wake of the fire. Insurance records show that Campbell twice increased his insurance policy, which totaled $13 million in 2023. Emails show a local bank was also ending its relationship with Campbell because bank executives couldn’t see how the lodge operations could cover the debt. The resort’s former general manager also emailed that they didn’t have enough money to make payroll.
Campbell’s phone records show he searched for a fire gel that couldn’t be ruled out as an accelerant to start the fire. And the resort owner was in the lodge at the time of the fire.
In December, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension charged Campbell with arson and insurance fraud. He has previously denied starting the fire, and Campbell’s attorney declined to comment.
Prior to the charges, Campbell told journalist Joe Friedrichs in an interview for his podcast “The Fire: A North Shore Story” that it was an unprecedented winter.
“Resorts in the entire state had a horrible winter, and that’s the other thing that I think is missed by a lot of people is we weren’t the only ones having a tight winter,” Campbell said.
Climate change drives shifts in winter events
North America’s largest cross-country ski race wouldn’t have happened in 2024 if organizers hadn’t arranged to make and stockpile more than 1,200 dump truck loads of snow.
Organizers of the American Birkebeiner said snow conditions were better this year, drawing around 12,000 skiers. But they still had to change their week of events due to mid-February’s unseasonably warm and wet weather. Although, the week-long warm up followed by freezing cold created fast conditions that led to a course record in the men’s 50-kilometer race.
Ben Popp, executive director of the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation, said climate change has increasingly affected their operations. Organizers spent just under $600,000 on snowmaking this year. The foundation has spent around $1.8 million on snowmaking infrastructure, Popp said.
“It really is something that we know is going to be an important part of the future as we continue to see climate warming, but also know how do we do it in a cost-effective manner, so that it doesn’t completely change access to people because it just prices people out,” Popp said.
Popp estimated skiers are paying $20 to $25 more to race than five years ago so that organizers have the funds to make the event happen. As the climate continues to warm, he said events like the Birkie will be gone without snow and winter along with the more than $20 million it contributes to the regional economy.
As winters get warmer in Wisconsin, the window for making snow is getting smaller — and snow that does fall isn’t sticking around as long.
After opening for the first time in more than a decade, the Apostle Islands ice caves were only open to the public for a single day in February. Ice broke up along Lake Superior’s shore near Meyers Beach during a winter storm, and it’s unlikely the state will see the sub-zero temperatures needed for stable ice to return this winter.
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