Special Report: Will the Ice Caves Open in 2018?

Will the Apostle Island Ice Caves open this year? It’s the question of the Northern Wisconsin tourism season.

The ice formations in the sea caves on Lake Superior are so popular that back in 2014 about 140,000 people came out to see them.

The last time they were open was four years ago, and after a cold winter many people are wondering if they will open in 2018.

FOX 21 got a chance to get an exclusive look from the ground, by heading out there with the ice rescue team to see why despite cold temperatures; it’s not likely the ice caves will open this year.

The National Parks Service conducts ice assessments before deciding if the ice caves can open. The crew heads out with a spud bar and ice drill to check thickness. Most importantly, they are also looking at the quality of the ice.

“The difference between a clear ice with a more hard, flat appearance and ice pack is the ice pack didn’t form here,” said Mark McCool, Resource Protection Manager for Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. “ It was wind-blown, blown in and froze together.”

It’s easy to spot that pack ice this year by the ice caves, which is why the ice layer frequently blows out near the caves when winds hit the area. The poor quality ice is dangerous for people to walk across.

“We’ve seen almost two foot of ice pack in the early years gets blown out in less than two hours with a wind direction that’s strong,” said McCool. “We have to be very careful with our wind assessments and monitoring to open the ice caves.”

The margin of error for this team is non-existent, because a mistake could cost them dozens of lives.

“We hate to think of that where you can have hundreds of people on unsafe ice if the ice starts to break up, the amount of equipment, the amount of people and there’s no easy access to get back on shore,” said Supervisory Park Ranger Lance Twombly. “It would be really terrible.”

Which is why the view of the amazing ice formations may have to remain one of Mother Nature’s guarded treasures once again this year.

“We love the ice caves, and we want people to see them,” said Twombly. “But we definitely don’t want somebody to get seriously injured or die because of the ice caves.”

The ice caves can be very dangerous if the conditions are not right. Do not go out on Lake Superior unless the National Park Service opens the area for tourists. For the most up-to-date conditions on the ice caves, click here.