This story comes from the Wisconsin News Collaborative, a partnership of Wisconsin public media newsrooms, including WUWM, Wisconsin Public Radio, and WXPR.
A northern Wisconsin ski resort will continue to operate after filing for bankruptcy as it struggles to survive amid recent seasons with little snow.
A federal judge on Tuesday granted interim approval for the Whitecap Mountains Resort in Iron County to use funds on hand to stay open after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Nov. 19. The ruling means season passes will be honored and employees will be paid.
David Dziuban, the company’s president, owns and operates the resort that calls itself the “snowiest” in Wisconsin. In court filings, he said a lack of snow in recent winters left the resort deep in debt.
“The high levels of snowfall coming from off Lake Superior have permitted (Whitecap) to operate without a significant level of snowmaking equipment that other resorts rely upon. In comparison, the snowfall for the past two ski seasons (2023 and 2024) was extremely low,” the filings state.
The resort spans more than 400 acres with 43 ski runs on three peaks. During the state’s warmest winter on record, the resort saw snowfall drop almost 90 percent from the previous winter’s total of 260 inches. Revenues subsequently plummeted 86 percent from $1.4 million during the 2022-2023 season to just around $197,000 the year after. The resort made around $532,000 in revenues during the most recent winter, which saw less than 60 inches of snow.
“The past two seasons have been historically bad for ski resorts, not just Whitecap Mountains,” said Evan Schmit, an attorney for Whitecap’s parent company, Midwest Skiing Company.
The company took out a loan in June 2024 to keep the resort afloat. But court filings state the following season was also slow, preventing it from refinancing the loan with its lender, Brighton Asset Management. Brighton found the company in default on about $1.86 million and issued notices that a foreclosure sale would occur early next month, according to court documents.
Attorneys for Brighton didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Shannon Larson is an avid downhill skier at Whitecap, who said he’s confident the resort will survive. He said there’s nothing better than skiing at Whitecap when lake-effect snow dumps over its peaks, calling it a “spiritual” workout.
“Dude, I have had so many stellar days there,” Larson said. “My top 10 powder days — probably seven or eight of them are at Whitecap.”
But Wisconsin winters are getting warmer and wetter. Winter has warmed twice as fast as other seasons, according to a 2021 report from the Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts. Northern Wisconsin has seen average low temperatures increase by between 6 and 9 degrees since 1950, said Amanda Latham, climate outreach specialist for the Wisconsin State Climatology Office.
“Those first freezes of fall are coming later, and then those last freezes of spring are coming earlier,” Latham said. “That’s squishing winter on both ends, and that trend is expected to continue.”
Latham noted the Hurley area, which is near the resort in Upson, typically sees the most snow in the state, averaging 60 to 80 inches each winter over the past three decades.
Melissa Teeple, executive director of the Hurley Area Chamber, said generations of locals have memories of skiing at Whitecap since it opened in 1960. She said the importance of snowy winters on the region’s economy can’t be overstated. A coalition of tourism entities in a seven-county region estimated millions of dollars in losses in 2024 due to the lack of snow.
“People here have always seen snow, and for them, it’s a fact of life,” Teeple said. “Now that it’s changing here … it’s encouraging them to have to adapt a lot.”
Jim Engel, executive director of Skiing Wisconsin, said snowmaking has become key in Wisconsin for the state’s more than 30 hills. A study last year found that shorter winters have forced the state’s ski hills to rely more on snowmaking.
“Wisconsin weather, like any weather, has some challenges,” Engel said. “Even if it’s a good year for natural snow, the natural snow that the ski areas get isn’t enough.”
Midwest Skiing Company said it filed for bankruptcy protection “to put a stop to the collection efforts and speculation within its community and among customers over the upcoming snow season.” An automatic stay under the bankruptcy code prevents Brighton from moving forward with collection through foreclosure, attorneys for Midwest Skiing Company said in a court filing.
The court set a hearing for final approval on Jan. 20.
