Updates: Ice Reports

I skated the Green River Reservoir again today, briefly. It was still great. Definitely more snow than yesterday, but not much. The main body of the reservoir was getting pretty windswept and medium-sized grabby drifts were forming. The more sheltered areas were covered in light dry snow that was easy to skate through, and the ice was consistently good everywhere I went.

I added an excursion to Schofield Pond to my day. I’ve been intrigued by it for years, and thought it would be fun to try to skate it. I couldn’t find any kind of trail, so I wound up bushwhacking from campsite 15.

I’m told I erred in referring to the area near Lake Ninevah, in my last report, as “central Vermont”. My deepest apologies to all of you who live in the one true Central Vermont; I won’t make that mistake again!

I skated Lake Ninevah yesterday, in Mount Holly, Vermont, just north of Ludlow. We don’t get a lot of reporting on central Vermont ice, so I wanted to be sure people knew about this one.

Today I mountain biked in to Long Pond, in Benton, NH. The ice was excellent, thick black ice from end to end, though with lots of blemishes and some snowy areas.

Ticklenaked Pond, just off the interstate in Ryegate, was in gorgeous shape today. 4”+ of solid ice, a mixture of snow ice and black ice and combinations of the two, strong and smooth as can be. Everywhere I checked, other than the extreme edges of the pond, was thick and stable. The surrounding moat was minimal, maybe 2 feet of thin ice, easily bridged. Symes Pond, also in Ryegate but farther off the main roads, was also very nice. Not as perfectly smooth as Ticklenaked, and not as consistent, but still great.

All the ponds seem to be coming in (for those who aren’t traveling to Maine for early season big ice), all with similar conditions.

We checked out a few ponds and lakes today. Nothing was great, all variations on semi frozen but very flimsy snow ice on top of harder, older ice. Will it be cold enough for long enough tonight to make a decent surface in the morning?

Grafton Pond is in excellent shape: 100% skateable, and the ice level is significantly higher than it was the last time we were out on it in December (and than the water level was last fall), so there’s more to skate and more islands in place of peninsulas.

We spent the morning skating on Smith Pond. It’s in excellent shape: 100% skateable, all decent, some large areas of smooth-like-glass ice, some fruit peel ice, a very few snow drifts, some frozen pedestrian and animal tracks, some bumpy areas, a tiny amount of shell ice.

Play video For the third time in three days I skated from the north beach to the gap. Each day it’s been a very distinct experience, all of them amazing.

We tried to skate south along the eastern shore of Lake Sunapee this afternoon, putting in at the Georges Mills town beach, but conditions didn’t allow us to get very far. After 45 minutes we had only made it about 2.5 km, most of which was walking through dense foam-like snow, sometimes postholing, often breaking through the crust into ≈4” of slush. There were a couple short stretches of skateable ice, mostly covered with a light skim of snow. But mostly the top layer of the ice sandwich was still soft (presumably from yesterday’s warmth), and the snow had drifted and solidified. It ranged from grabby to tackle-and-throw-you-to-the-ground-y.

As many others have reported, Waterbury Reservoir’s in good shape. Very consistent gray ice, ranging from very smooth to citrus peel to lightly scalloped. Some snow cover, and today, with an air temperature of 40º F when we started mid afternoon, that was mostly soft and not great to skate on / through. Occasional small areas were soft enough to slice down into with our blades, firm 1 cm slush. Once it all refreezes it should be even better.

Another great day on Moore. Lots of list folks out, everyone happy and friendly and having a great time.

Amazing day on Moore Reservoir, thanks to Evan for the prompt update this morning. I believe a number of folks on this list took advantage of it.

I took a very short spin on Lake Fairlee. It was ≈1” of smooth ice on top of 2-3” of water, on top of 7”+ of ice. There were skateable sections, but mostly it was shell on water. Video attached.

First, a caution: This is a report on wild ice, meaning thin ice with notable objective hazards. This is not (yet) the Lake Morey of the maintained and safe skating trail. Wear safety gear, check the ice yourself, and be prepared for surprises. I spent the afternoon on Lake Morey, and it was delightful. I checked the ice thickness many times in many places (using my pole and a Skyllermarks ice gauge). The thinnest I found (and I got off it immediately) was 5cm; otherwise it was 6-8cm. By the end of the afternoon (4pm) I was consistently finding 8cm ice. Not to say thinner ice isn’t there, I was just carefully avoiding it.

Out on Crystal Lake in Enfield NH right now. Very thick gray ice. The spots we’ve tested (with sticks and ice screws) have been too thick to get through, so 6”+. Ice fishing holes near the island on the west side are 10-12” deep.

After a nice long skate on Fairlee today, we stopped by Morey to see how it’s coming along. From the resort it looked like the whole thing is covered with beautiful black ice. We only tested it right by the shore, and it was a hair under an inch thick. We’ve got another complicated week of weather coming up, but perhaps it’ll be thick enough to explore before the next warm rainy spell. Worth keeping an eye on, for sure! Photos attached.

We’re out on Fairlee right now and it’s fully skateable. Ice fishers out across the lake, one guy on an ATV. We haven’t managed to poke through the ice and keep getting bored around 6”. Ice fishers are reporting 6”+ everywhere as well.