Ice Rescue Instructor Luc Mehl spends his work and play time outdoors in Alaska where he grew up. In the 1m37s video above, he films his wife and friends skating across different textures of refrozen fractured ice.
Of the “cool ‘shale-like'” textured chips on Skilak Lake, he writes, “We think wind broke up thin ice and packed it against the ice edge.” In another Skilak post featuring terrazzo-textured ice, he writes:
“I assume these are plates of thin old ice that were broken up by wind and then refrozen. A warm and windy weather pulse created a veneer of water on the surface which resulted in smooth skating! Super cool.”
A reminder: Conditions on frozen lakes can change quickly; skaters must be able to identify safe ice and carry emergency rescue equipment. In the comments of the post below from @lucmehl, someone asks, “Ok but how do you KNOW the water is ok to skate on and is not gonna brake the ice?” Mehl responds:
“We can never be certain, but new ice like this, 10 cm or more thick, is very strong. We test the ice’s strength and thickness as we go along.”
The 2023 autumn also provided crystal clear wild ice at Rabbit Lake on the traditional homelands of the Dena’ina Athabascan peoples, an area known as Chugach State Park:
In the video below, Mehl films his wife and friends on the ice at Rabbit Lake, Williwaw Lakes, Walrus Lake, and Eagle Lake all located on Dena’ina lands, Chugach State Park.
Watch this video next: The Sound of Ice: Skating on thin black ice makes sci-fi movie laser sounds.
Plus: Crackling ice stacking on the shore of Lake Superior and Ice Drumming on Lake Baikal.
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