Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Mahinerangi - armed and dangerous!

Early this morning I went to check out Lake Mahinerangi arm and was pleased to find ice thick enough to skate.   Had a good skate on mostly smooth hard ice and great as it is so close to home. The first good skate there for 3 years.  Varied ice but a rewarding fun skate (ever skated down hill...........)

Skaters there need to be extremely cautious as Mahinerangi arm is a tricky place to skate - and dangerous if you are not prepared.  It needs hard frosts and the ice changes rapidly as the lake is well exposed to wind and sun (the wind farm is nearby).  The lake level constantly falls over the winter period and creates dangerous ice shelves around the edge - and these create thaw points for the wind. The lake edge can be very muddy if there is no hard frost.
Lake level dropping
Ice edges shelve and break

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