Lake Champlain 1/2 mountains of the moon

[Evan Perkins]

If you woke up this morning, wanting to leave the planet, the middle of the broad on Lake Champlain are about as close as you're gonna get today. So far we have been able to skate from Charlottetown Beach to the four Brothers Islands. Skating on 3 1/2 inch thick, black ice most of the way with some 2 1/2 inch black ice. Lots of navigating through intensely beautiful ice flows and ridges, had to take the skates off once for a short rubble field crossing. Definitely advanced navigating out here and ice reading. There are some small and some large areas of half-inch skim from last night, easily visible in the -9 temperatures this morning, but as the day warms up the steam that is rising off them might not be as visible. It goes without saying that this is big Lake Ice, and definitely don't venture far out on this lake, which still has lots of open water and thin ice in places, unless you have experience and understanding of this environment.

     For folks looking for some great Skating, there's really nice Ice off of Charlottetown Beach, which just involves crossing a couple hundred yard rubble field and then you can link together big plates of beautiful black ice.

[Nick vanderKloot]

Three of us also went from Charlotte at 8am but headed South. We followed the West shore to just North of Sloop Island and crossed the lake there. Very neat  passages on smooth ice through rubblefields. Got close to Essex but had to turn around because work called. Think you can pick your way to Essex.

Most of it was on Cinderella ice. There is miles of ice to explore. 5min walk across a rubble field from the Charlotte Town beach.

But please read Evan's word of caution....... today may not be the day. We also easily crossed one wet crack (just N of Sloop Island). It was still the same on our return, but we were wondering if it would widen later in the day.

Also, there was still open water in the middle of the lake yesterday that may still be thin today (though we did not encounter it).

On Monday, February 2, 2026 at 08:14:14 AM EST, Evan Perkins <evanwpe...@gmail.com> wrote:

If you woke up this morning, wanting to leave the planet, the middle of the broad on Lake Champlain are about as close as you're gonna get today. So far we have been able to skate from Charlottetown Beach to the four Brothers Islands. Skating on 3 1/2 inch thick, black ice most of the way with some 2 1/2 inch black ice. Lots of navigating through intensely beautiful ice flows and ridges, had to take the skates off once for a short rubble field crossing. Definitely advanced navigating out here and ice reading. There are some small and some large areas of half-inch skim from last night, easily visible in the -9 temperatures this morning, but as the day warms up the steam that is rising off them might not be as visible. It goes without saying that this is big Lake Ice, and definitely don't venture far out on this lake, which still has lots of open water and thin ice in places, unless you have experience and understanding of this environment.

     For folks looking for some great Skating, there's really nice Ice off of Charlottetown Beach, which just involves crossing a couple hundred yard rubble field and then you can link together big plates of beautiful black ice.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ADKNordicSkating" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to adknordicskati...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/adknordicskating/CAGhmPWXCjWTQjgezFOGhN%3D4PN6%3DG6q1Uqm-5Q5LTp8B0nZOuGA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Nick vanderKloot]

I meant…… we followed the East shore ( obviously not the West one)

Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/adknordicskating/727854738.6548289.1770045868500%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Charlene Wallace]

We had a conservative and very satisfying skate, launching from Charlotte Town Beach and skating south until we hit rubble right before Sloop Island, then back again, staying close to shore the whole time. Amazing plates! Gorgeous views across the lake and to the north and south! Lots of wet cracks—literally cracks, not gaps. So far, pressure ridges have not developed.  3 - 3.5" thick ice. 

Track attached, 9 miles, less than 2 hours. 

Charlene

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VTNordicskating" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to vtnordicskati...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/vtnordicskating/1342631653.6590688.1770048839510%40mail.yahoo.com.