North Beach to the four brothers, Lake Champlain, Vermont 2/9

[Evan Perkins]

We left from North Beach around noon, had to double pull out of North Beach and snow. That was a little too grabby to Skate. Once partially out of the bay, they were plenty of lanes to skate, followed the track that I have attached north to find a huge open lead of new ice, about three-quarter inch thick. I also noticed that the open pond of Ice off of Leddy Beach was quite a bit bigger than had been pictured in the satellite. We then follow the big thin ice lead roughly south west Skating open lanes and a few bigger open areas, grabby northwest oriented snow drifts, which we were able to skate around. The big, thin ice lead petered out somewhere north of Juniper Island. From there, we were able to pick our way through to the four brothers which were pretty spectacular with massive piles of 6 inch ice, and some places piled six or 7 feet high. There were some ponds of thin ice in that general area as well. As well as two different big open wet cracks that were crossable, but extended quite a distance in either direction.

      The big observation is that the open water that was on the New York side in the satellite yesterday is now mostly on the Vermont side. There must've been an East wind during the night or at the end of the day yesterday that moved all of the lakes ice pack over to the New York side. We will see which state wins the lottery of having the new ice. Tomorrow the wind is coming from the south and south east, given that this is the wind shift from the north wind that has been blowing for several days. It is likely that there may be more big movement of ice plates on the main lake. 

       If one were to venture out onto the main lake tomorrow do so with great caution and probably very early when it is calmer and colder. Or don't go at all because there's certainly a risk of big plates moving. With the cold temps tonight it is certainly possible that the pond off of Leddy Beach will be supportable for Skating, but it will probably only be 2 inch so best for someone who is interested on Skating on thin ice like that and properly prepared. In general, the surface conditions are on the lake are pretty wild, tons of cracks pressure ridges snow drifts this Ice has been through a lot. The skating was excellent with lots of fun route finding.

     Unfortunately, the forecast is not look great, because the snow did not completely clear from the lake. It is very unlikely that the next round of snow will clear. Perhaps something might become of the thin ice that is out there right now or better yet it opens up to become black ice another day. Attached is yesterday's satellite photo, my track, a photo taken from an airplane by a friend this afternoon, and another photo from the news all very illustrative.

[Evan Perkins]