Updates

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.

When I joined the Nordic skating lists, I frequently found that messages were winding up in my spam folder. I’ve heard from others that this is a shared problem. Here’s how to prevent that from happening, at least for Gmail accounts.

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.

In late December the ice came in on Squam Lake. Some skaters were lucky enough to get miles of limpid black ice; the day that Sarah and I went out it snowed lightly, just a dusting on the surface, but enough to obscure the lake underneath. The day we were out five people fell through, in three completely separate, unrelated (and unknown to each other) groups. All were fine. We were one of the groups that broke through; we were prepared and everything went completely smoothly.