Seeing this “fun idea” during Michigan Tech’s famed Winter Carnival — which features a snow-sculpting competition on campus — a small group of students at St. Al’s decided to give it a go back in 2016 alongside their pastor, Father Ben Hasse. They were quickly surprised by how the word spread and how excited people — Catholics and non-Catholics alike — were to come to such an event, leading to international coverage in 2021.

Ten winter carnivals later, building the Our Lady of the Snows Ice Chapel is a well-known annual tradition for the students, locals and people from all over the world.

The ice chapel is built each year by college students and community members in the Keweenaw peninsula city of Houghton. Over the course of a month, people can be found outside shoveling, bucketing, stomping and carving from a mountain of snow. Through their efforts and plywood forms held together by 2-by-4s, the ice chapel is brought to life.

More and more students get involved each year, and they bring with them their creativity to further add to the beauty of the chapel. Examples include stained ice panes, a raised pulpit, a Marian grotto and carved side aisles. Another unique feature is the acquisition of an ice slab pulled up by hand from a nearby bay to use as the chapel’s altar.

FATHER ROMEO CAPELLA, associate pastor at St. Albert the Great University Parish, speaks during an Ice Mass in 2024 in Houghton. The parish builds an ice chapel every year during Michigan Tech's Winter Carnival. (Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette file photo)

The priests at St. Al’s plan three Ice Masses in the Our Lady of the Snows Ice Chapel: 5:30 and 10 p.m. Eastern time Friday, and 10 a.m. Eastern time Saturday. The first two Masses will be livestreamed. Go to mtucatholic.org/icemass to register for the link.

The experience of building this unique structure brings about and strengthens friendships. When asked how much it costs to build an Ice Chapel, Hasse simply responds “about a thousand dollars’ worth of pizza,” which fuels the volunteers. St. Al’s parish is overjoyed to bring to life a creation that glorifies God and brings the community together through the Mass.

To learn more about the Ice Mass or St. Albert the Great University Parish, go to mtucatholic.org/icemass. To learn more about Michigan Tech’s Winter Carnival, go to mtu.edu/carnival/2025.

Michigan Tech’s Winter Carnival starts Wednesday and extends through Saturday.