It’s been a bit touch and go in the past week. The pond was reported to be still open a few days ago and the hope was that it’d stay open until the small disturbance today and tomorrow passes through. Then it’s deep cold right through the weekend. But:

Bryan Hitchcock Presents this horror story. He was alone and without gear so he only jumped heavily on the ice near to shore and found no cracking. We’ll have another look Wednesday, at the tail end of this little storm.

We really shouldn’t complain about a little snow on the ice, however. A DN regatta held last week in Novosibirsk, Russia, encountered a bit of snow but they had a great time anyway.

Novosibirsk is just north of the point where China, Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan meet. This is Jorg Bohn, one of a group of Germans that made the trip. So, let’s hear no whining about long drives to distamt lakes this winter! Speaking of which, just one more tip of the helmet to Rick Bishop and the Cape Cod boys who drove to Moosehead last spring, found slush, had breakfast and went home. That’s sisu.