Lake Willoughby vt 2/2

[Evan Perkins]

     The 1st mile of the south end of the lake is open, except for a small area of ice along the south shore. The rest of the lake is covered in smooth, black ice I believe the bulk of the Lake is covered in one and three-quarter inch ice, I got out from shore with safety gear in several places and tested. The north end off the beach has a thick four-inch plate that is black and gray with some frozen slush puddles but pretty nice skating .out from there is the real prize , a large plate of perfect black ice, hovering just above and below 2 inches. This is not thick ice, but it is very strong. I was able to skate about 20 miles in a couple hours this morning doing up wind and down wind runs on some amazing ice. There was a couple large slush bands that I was using as hand rails because they were 3 inches thick to state this large plate of 2 - “ ice

    That’s the good news. The bad news is that the winds are predicted to be very strong from the south at the beginning of the cold air coming through and then they will be switching to the west, and then very strong out of the north. There is a chance that the whole lake could blow out in this event, that is likely. There is also a chance that some Percentage of this ice might survive this wind and cold weather event . as the air gets cold this ice will contract, and then the wind will force it water up through those contraction cracks so most likely any ice that survives is going to be laced with bands of slush, because we are also supposed to be getting snow showers tonight at the time of the cold air’s arrival . In any case there is some hope there.

      I was grateful to get those amazing couple hours this morning before the wind really picks up this afternoon. This is home ice for me and I’m always grateful for any time. I get to be out on the ice on this lake.

        Evan