Surfers, 'Ice Bars,' Winter Trails on North Shore of Lake Superior

Minnesota’s North Shore region is a wild angle of land laced with rivers, cliffs, deep woods, and a mini mountain range called the Sawtooths. We took a winter retreat to the area this month in search of deep snow but instead found locals reveling in a January thaw. From trail running to ice climbing to surfing on Lake Superior’s waves, we captured some of the action and jumped in to participate where we could in the Minnesota wintertime rites. —Stephen Regenold

—Stephen Regenold is a native Minnesotan. He wrote about surfing on Lake Superior in 2009 for the New York Times in the story “Hanging 10 (Degrees) on Icy Lake Superior.”