Lake Geneva Ice Castle melts, opening delayed

NOW: Lake Geneva Ice Castle melts, opening delayed
NEXT:

LAKE GENEVA, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Sometimes you have to take the good with the bad when it comes to winter in Wisconsin.

You won’t have to scrape ice off your car with near-record temperatures around Christmas, but the Lake Geneva Ice Castle,which is normally finished by Christmas, was only about a quarter of it’s full size Thursday, Dec. 26.

Some families used the mid 50’s temperatures to skip rocks at Bradford Beach in Milwaukee.

“It’s fantastic," Benjamin Barnard said. "It’s an opportunity to do something that you’d normally be able to do.”

Others wanted to stick to traditional winter holiday activities. Lapham Peak is one of the only places near Milwaukee that can offer snow – because they make their own.

And even fake snow gets pretty icy around 60 degrees.

“Ski clothes, [normally] you’ve got your spandex, your long underwear," Luke Gesior said. "You’ve got to ditch all that, and find a t-shirt or something lighter to wear. So it’s a little bit tricky with these conditions."

Manufactured snow is still around, but manufactured ice for the Lake Geneva Ice Castle keeps melting.

“Weather definitely threw a wrench into things," site manager Joe Weiler said. "We were a little bit higher last, week. But unfortunately we did lose some of that height.”

They make their own snow and freeze their own ice, so all they need are a couple weeks of cold.

But they’re still waiting.

“We’re kind of just at the will of Mother Nature," Weiler said. "We do as much building as we can when we do get those temperatures, and just try to protect it as best we can.”

They expect the castle to be open around Jan 10.

Share this article: