Ice report from Ed Waite, Dave Patchett and Ryan Hellyer.
Hideously windy cold weather today. Small dump of snow overnight but nothing major. Wind has created some pressure cracks across the surface but they’re very solid and safe to skate across.
Approximately 90 – 100 mm ice in the first basin as you drive in.
Snow is on it’s way so potentially the last skate on smooth ice here for the winter perhaps.
Report from Ed waite and Eyan Hellyer
Excellent smooth ice in the middle basin, approximately 100 mm thick. water in channel between middle and bottom basins.
Report from Ed Waite, Dave Patchett and Ryan Hellyer.
Excellent ice across entire dam. Between 60 and 90 mm of cold hard black ice. Water level is much higher than last couple of freezes so were able to traverse some previously non existent bays. Excellent ice quality on some of the streams flowing into the dam, providing some good downhill skating opportunities.
Heading to lower manorburn now. Also intending have a night skate on poolburn before camping above the dam.
Ice report from Dave Patchett via SMS.
Poolburn is on! Just leaving now but skated around island and up the long arm. Creaky 4 cm in places out in the middle but no open water anywhere. Could be awesome with more frost tonight.
Report from Dave Patchett.
At Manorburn. Great ice at rushcutters.
Report from Dave Patchett via SMS
At Manorburn now. Looks like lovely strong ice. Will see how far I can get
Surface is generally very good. Depth is variable. Lots of water flow so goes from 10 cm to skim in about 8 m in shadow near end of road. Just put my toe through up there. Can’t get get down toward lower basin much but can make a creaky passage across the bays upstream of Rushcutters to reach shadow. Could be even better with more frost. Is very still.
The NIWA weather report for Alexandra indicates that there was a -2Ā°. C frost last night and the current downward track indicates that we may get an even better frost this evening, so if anyone out there is desperately looking for some ice to skate on, then the Lower Manorburn dam may be the best place to check out.
NIWA temperature trace for Alexandra
An ice report for the Lower Manorburn dam is available via “Chip off the ice block“.
Ice report from Dave Patchett and Ryan Hellyer …
The ice is rapidly melting. We had a brief skate in the gorge but were only a few meters or so from open water, which was slowly approachingĀ as the morning moved on. The section of ice we were on was approximately 50 mm thick but reasonably smooth as the warm temperatures had done a god job of resurfacing it.
The middle basin had a skim of ice with a layer of water on top, but most of the two channels was liquid as was the entire bottom basin.
Updated 10:24pm 17th July. Added more photos.
Report from Ryan Hellyer …
We had a fresh snow dump overnight so I went up to inspect flagstaff this morning. Whare flat rd is very slippery, so be careful if you are driving there.
The small inlet opposite the main pond is much more solid now, but still looking a little too sketchy to skate on. I stood on it, but didn’t bother attempting to skate as that surface is too small to be worth risking falling in for.
The main pond is looking considerably healthier than the other day. The snow surrounding it has unfortunately made it very awkward to get to the thicker sections of the edges without risking falling in. I tested a section of ice further around the side, but once more got my leg wet up to the knee, a lack of foot holding is a real problem here unfortunately. The surface was probably skateable out in the middle but it would be very touch and go so I wouldn’t recommend it. A few good frosts and/or snow dumps and we may be in business though š
