Very hard ice after cold freeze over night. Ice was skateable at the beginning of the gorge and channel sections but relatively thin at approx. 30 mm. Skate with care. Ice will likely soften in sun so only suitable for mornings.
Temperature was -7 deg. C
Dave Patchett, Dave Young and Ryan Hellyer drove through to Central Otago at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning. Travelling past Mahinerangi revealed no ice to be seen. A good frost travelling through Fruitlands looked promising.
From there, we hoped a trip through to the Lower Manorburn dam would provide some skateable ice, but alas the weather gods were not with us and only 10 – 15 mm of softish ice was present. Some warm’ish temperatures overnight hadn’t helped the ice conditions at all unfortunately. The best ice was found in the gorge just before the neck, but still not sufficient for safe skating.
Dave Patchett testing the extremely thin ice at the Lower Manorburn dam
From the Lower Manorburn we decided to check out Poolburn dam on the assumption that all hope was lost and we weren’t going to get a skate in today. However it turned out that at Poolburn although not great, was acceptable to skate on close to the shoreline – sort of. An ice thickness of around 15 mm was okay to skate on so long as two feet were kept planted permanently on the ice surface. A wetsuit is highly recommended for skating away from the shoreline as the potential to fall through is reasonably high – video footage of such an event coming soon š
Dave Young skating along the shoreline at Poolburn
An attempt to find skateable ice close to the dam face was unsuccessful. The best ice was found further back from the dam, closer to where the main road from Omakau into Poolburn meets at the dam.
Dave Young inspecting the ice towards the dam
The Poolburn dam face
Conroy’s dam was totally liquid, no sign of ice of any kind.
Dave Patchett staring out onto the expanse of nothing but liquid water.
Marginal ice, may have been okay in the morning but softened in sun by the time we checked inthe late afternoon. Ice thickness approx. 20 mm.
Marginal ice poolburn. We had a brief skate on the edges but was very dangerous, not recommended unless prepared to fall in. Approx. 15 mm thick. More detailed report on it’s way.
Report via trip with Dave Young, Dave Patchett and Ryan Hellyer.
15 mm softish ice on central basin. Similar on top basin.
Report from trip with Dave Patchett, Dave Young.
The temperatures in Alexandra have been dropping rapidly this week, culiminating in high of under 1°. C. We should have some reports of actual ice reports in Central Otago tomorrow. Watch this space!
NIWA weather report for Alexandra
We had difficulty finding accurate information regarding weather patterns in the Maniototo region, so have launchedĀ a new service for tracking temperatures in Naseby. The temperature is updated every hour. Hopefully some of you will find this useful for scoping out potential ice conditions before travelling.
Thanks to Larchview Holiday Park for the raw data used by this service. Larchview Holiday Park offer an excellent array of cost-effective accommodation and are an ideal place to stay during skating excursions into the Maniototo region. Check out their website for more information.
There was a small amount of ice on the surface of the Lower Manorburn dam this morning according to the latest Chip off the Ice Block report. Check out the full report for more information.
Chip Off the Ice Block report 28th June 2011
Slither of ice on Lower Manorburn dam 28/6/2011. Photo courtesy of Dave Young.
A short film titled “Life in a Day” was shot by Central Video last year. The film features footage from the Lower Manorburn dam on July 24th 2010.
According to InterstellarDustCo it was …
filmed for the Life in a Day experimental documentary by a couple of big US directors – this video got through to the first round
The skaters include Peter Cole, Dave Patchett and Ryan Hellyer. If you recognise any of the other skaters in the film please leave a comment below.