Northeast kingdom ice report 12/19

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Evan Perkins

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Dec 19, 2022, 10:54:02 AM12/19/22

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I have not traveled far and wide, but through observations while cross country skiing, and on errands, I have seen several small ponds and swamps that have resurfaced to an orange peel texture under a quarter inch of fluffy snow. Most of these are too small or do not have proper access to report on the list, but I am sure that there are many more venues out there across the state that have similar conditions where the heavy snow has depressed thin ice .I was out the morning after the storm and some of the areas that had thicker ice, For instance, Keiser pond in Danville, Vermont, had thick enough ice to be holding the 11 inches of snow without having any resurfacing happening.

I heard reports from another Skater that stiles pond in Saint Johnsbury Vermont has completely resurfaced to orange, peel ice, and also that the Eastern end of Joe’s pond has resurfaced to orange peel ice.(a a note of caution on Joe’s Pond is that the narrows on the Eastern end, often remain thin all winter so I would approach those areas with extreme caution).

We did ski into Symes pond in Ryegate yesterday morning, there was some resurfacing going on, but not enough to be worth skating, it’s also about a mile cross country skiing now.

We drove by ticklenaked pond in Ryegate, there was a very large sidewalk along the whole eastern edge, as well as some areas on the north end of the pond that resurfaced. There is a good chance that these ponds continued to resurface some after we left, but no guarantees.

As far as ice thickness goes, the orange peel ice was supportable this morning, but only about an inch and a half to an inch and 3/4, tomorrow morning would be a better bet ,particularly if you don’t know the thickness of the ice underneath. Since the temperatures are not supposed to be that cold, it is highly likely that there’s still going to be a layer of slush between the old Ice and the new orange peel ice even as of tomorrow morning in most places.