The students got to work, shoveling, forming and carving the first Ice Chapel. They were soon surprised how quickly the word spread and how excited people were to come to such an event. It became a yearly tradition, dubbed, “The Ice Mass at the Ice Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows,” or simply, “The Ice Mass.”

This year’s Ice Mass will be at St. Albert the Great University Parish, or St. Al’s, 411 MacInnes Drive in Houghton during Michigan Technological University’s Winter Carnival. Three Masses are planned: 5:30 and 10 p.m. Eastern time Friday, Feb. 9, as well as 10 a.m. EST on Saturday, Feb. 10. The Mass at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9, will be live-streamed on Facebook and embedded on the mtucatholic.org/icemass website.

The chapel is built each year by college students and community members in Houghton. A mountain of snow; plywood forms held together with 2-by-4s; and a workforce of students shoveling, bucketing and stomping snow brings the chapel to life. Each year more students get involved in the build and offer new creative dimensions.

The chapel’s centerpiece, the altar, is built using thick slabs of ice hand-cut from Lake Superior — it’s quite an ordeal to get it in place.

“The Ice Mass at the Ice Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows,” or simply, “The Ice Mass,” will be at St. Albert the Great University Parish, 411 MacInnes Drive in Houghton during Michigan Technological University’s Winter Carnival. Two Masses are set for Friday, Feb. 9, and one for Saturday, Feb. 10. (Courtesy photo)

Built into the walls, one can find a raised pulpit, a Marian grotto, a hand-carved confessional that gets used, corridors along the sides, beautiful “stained ice” windows and a bell tower.

Throughout the building process, students grow together in friendship. When asked how much it costs to build an Ice Chapel, the Rev. Ben Hasse simply responds “about a thousand dollars worth of pizza,” which fuels the student labor. St. Al’s parish is overjoyed each year to shovel together a creation that glorifies God and brings the community together through the Mass, he said.