Winter fun!

[nosrednayduj]

So we finally got some seasonal weather starting around solstice; there was a white solstice/Christmas, and I did some cross-country skiing on the local ballfield. There's a short hill at the back of the ballfield which one can ski down if one climbs up it, and I sometimes do that. The last time I was there, somebody had been there with a snowboard, and they had built the smallest terrain park ever, by piling up some snow to make one ramp near the base. There was evidence in the snow of wipeouts associated with this. I did not partake. I skied down previously untouched snow.

Then it was warm and it all melted. Then it was cold and very windy. The lake has finally frozen, but the surface is pretty horrible, because it would manage to freeze some little six-inch square patch, and then the waves would dribble all over it and freeze droplets creating a ridge, and then there would be another little patch and then some more ridge and it was really terrible. It finally froze fairly far out in a smooth way, but too far out for me to be willing to go. There was also a nice-looking patch in a cove 1/4 of the way around the lake which I figured was probably safe, and had planned to go skating on this Saturday.

However, it snowed 3 inches on Friday night/Saturday morning, so there went skating. But, skiing! It's a little annoying, skiing over the bumpy ice because the amount of snow is not really enough to pad it well, but it was okay. So today and yesterday we were out there. We stayed pretty close to the shore, because it had frozen at different times and we had not spent any time figuring out exactly how thick the different places were. We are sure that it's pretty thick near the shore. There's always cracking, because of thermal expansion and contraction, and then there's upwelling in the cracks, so there were a few slushy spots, but they were not unsafe, merely annoying. At the south end of the lake there is a creek that comes in, and at the north end there is a place where there is an outlet, and we did not go past either of those potential thin areas, and instead turned around. Still, it was about 2 miles, and I feel exercised!

Comments

[lauradi7dw]

I mentioned yesterday the time 20 years ago or so that my daughter went over a constructed bump on a sledding/tubing hill and lost consciousness.
https://lauradi7dw.dreamwidth.org/914840.html

Last week here were two fire department rescues in the Lexington old reservoir (our water now comes from Quabbin), a very small body of water, with ice that was not thick enough to support people. The rule is supposed to be ice 4-6 inches thick, with no open water. I remember in the late 1970s(?) skating near the edge of Spy Pond in Arlington, but couldn't imagine the ice being thick enough now.

[nosrednayduj]

Depends on the year, but indeed years in which skating and/or skiing are safe are few and far between. We have noticed substantial climate change in the 35 years we have been here.