Sunday, June 23, 2019

Taking a chance

After watching the weather over the last few days Dave P and I decided to take chance and went to Poolburn today.  Probably the most challenging drive I have had to the ice - temps around zero degrees and fog made for a slippery road. A slow trip.  Finally we climbed out of the fog on the track up to the dam.   A bit of snow still around was good news.
Still patches of water over the lake but we found some skate able ice in the small bay and eventually headed over to a far bay and had a fantastic skate.  Ice was variable though and we had to stay aware of the different ice conditions and how far we could push it.  A worth while effort.



Idaburn: Thin ice in the main basin with water on top - no skate.
Coalpit:  Up to about 10mm over most of the dam. 



4 comments:

Clive said...

Great to see you getting on the ice and great photos.......weathers looking good this week...:)

Dustin Hall Photography said...

What do you guys use as your guide to whether or not you step on the ice?

Dave said...

Hi Dustin
I guess experience... We used to drill the ice etc and work out safe thickness but so much can vary that we base it on how it looks, how the current weather (and temperature) at the ice is, the feel of the ice (how hard, type of ice, how much air, how it is formed etc)) and definitely probing unless we can see it is thick and locked in - even then we will test. Weather history a few days leading up is also a consideration.
Hope that helps.

Cheers

Dave

Dave said...

Also wanted to add that we never assume the whole area is the same...... Sometimes only a small part if safe.

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