Wild Ice

Hunting for Wild Ice

It wasn’t long ago that optimistic Nordic skaters might drive for hours hoping to find wild ice, only to pull into a lakeside parking lot to see waves lapping at a rocky shore. Catching prime skating ice — supportive enough to hold a skater, but not covered in snow — often came down to hair-brained hunches, fanatical commitment, and (most of all) a big dose of luck.

Though hunting for wild ice is still a major part of the sport, data-driven and community-based approaches have made “finding the goods” far easier in recent years. Beginner and intermediate Nordic skaters now have much more certainty, and ambitious skaters can track down extraordinary skating opportunities that would have been all but impossible to find in the era of hunch-based roadside scouting.

Roadside scouting/direct observation

Let’s be clear: the oldest method for finding wild ice does still work. While fewer people now drive long distances on a wild-ice-related lark, many of us still spend a lot of time commuting for more ho-hum reasons. This time can be put to use by scouting and gathering wild ice data.

Once you “tune” your eyes to look for ice, you’ll be amazed at how often you see it. Wild ice isn’t only found on big, scenic lakes. It also forms in marshes, flooded forests, ditches — even on roads themselves. This ice can be used as a data point to start looking at other waterbodies, or it can be a worthy destination on its own. Some of the scrappiest wild ice experiences end up being the most memorable. Headed out to a big, exciting wild ice destination? Keep your eyes peeled and you may spot backups (or even better skating spots) along the way.

Wild ice on Spring Creek, in the Mat-Su Valley, below the Parks and Glenn Highway interchange. Excellent ice can be often be found just off the road — and sometimes under it.

Scouting from the road is worthwhile, but scouting from the air is even better. And the ultimate form of roadside scouting? When your friends know how obsessed you are with wild ice and start sending unsolicited reports to you.

Weather data

Your chances of finding good wild ice improve dramatically by combining direct observation with predictive tools such as forecasts and ice formation charts. The rate of ice formation on any given waterbody is extremely complex, and depends on factors like wind, sun, biological activity, currents, and cloud cover. Believe it or not, radiative cooling on clear nights can cause ice to form on lakes even when air temperatures are above freezing! But despite the number and impact of variables at play, formulas and charts for ice formation are still effective tools.

The following charts, taken from the late Bob Dill’s exceptional wild ice blog “Lake Ice,” predict ice formation over a day, week, and month, using a formula developed by George Ashton in 1989. These charts are most useful when ice has already started forming on a waterbody, indicating that it’s on the brink of freezing. Conversely, the charts aren’t especially helpful on lakes with no ice at all, since the water may be far away from freezing. Some lakes (particularly large, deep lakes or lakes with unfavorable conditions like high wind) may require many sub-freezing days before they cool down enough for ice formation.

Charts showing ice formation over time using the 1989 Ashton formula. The charts are reproduced with permission via a Creative Commons license.

Though the Ashton charts are easy to use, they don’t factor in wind speed or radiative cooling. Wild ice skaters looking for a more sophisticated model may turn to a formula developed by Swedish ice scientist Martin Ajne. Dill converted Ajne’s formula into a spreadsheet for calculating ice growth; the spreadsheet can be downloaded from a link toward the bottom of Dill’s “Ice Growth” article.

On the Ice

In late fall 2023, friends told us that they’d seen ice forming on the Reed Lakes, in the Talkeetna Mountains north of Anchorage. Ordinarily, we never would have thought to go skating this early: after all, at sea level it still felt almost like summer. But the forecast called for clear skies and cold temperatures in the mountains, and the charts suggested that there could be skateable ice within a couple days.

Even at the parking lot, the trip felt like an exercise in foolish optimism. The first set of lagoons were wide open. But as we climbed higher we suddenly crossed the line into winter, and found amazing skating on both Lower and Upper Reed Lake. One longtime skater commented that this October 4 skate might be a “new record” for Southcentral Alaska. It probably wasn’t (and even if so, was broken in late September the next year), but it was still a testament to the power of direct observation combined with predictive tools.

Dana Kerr skating Upper Reed Lake on October 4, 2023

Satellite imagery

Seamless, high-quality base layers made with satellite imagery are built into nearly all mapping applications and platforms. Usually, these layers show summer imagery under ideal viewing conditions. This imagery can be helpful for general trip planning and “armchair exploration,” but it’s often years old and doesn’t tell skaters anything about current conditions. That’s where “near-real-time” satellite imagery comes in — and where things start to get exciting for Nordic skaters.

Near-real-time satellite imagery is made available shortly after it was captured. Sometimes the delay between capture and availability is less than a day, or even just a handful of hours. The ice you see in that imagery isn’t just illustrative, it’s actually there (or it was there, anyway).

Near-real-time satellite imagery is lower-res, and often has artefacts and indistinct areas. And, of course, clouds often partially or fully obscure the view. Imagery is available sporadically and sometimes isn’t available in certain regions for extended periods. But when it is available, access to near-real-time satellite imagery is like having a wild ice sleuthing superpower.

Animation of near-real-time satellite imagery showing excellent ice forming on Upper Trail Lake. New ice often appears dark, with telltale streaks or swirls that persist from day to day. Other times (here, for example), frost immediately covers the ice and makes it hard to differentiate from snow cover.

In some ways, near-real-time satellite imagery can provide even more insight into a body of ice than skating it. Satellite imagery can reveal the exact age of ice on various parts of a lake and show features like leads and pressure ridges that can be harder to spot from eye level.

Near-real-time satellite imagery of Skilak Lake, on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska, captured February 7, 2025. This imagery reveals a complex mixture of clear ice, frost or snow-affected ice, and open water near the inlet and outlet. Near-real-time satellite imagery provides information that would be difficult or impossible to find any other way, and can play an invaluable role in trip planning.

Currently, the best source for near-real-time satellite imagery is the free Copernicus Browser, which is a product of the EU’s Copernicus program. Note that the interface is slow and works much better on desktop computers.

Copernicus allows users to view data from different sources and in different ways. The “false color” layer, which causes ice to appear bright blue-green and contrast vividly with vegetation or snow, is especially useful.

On the Ice

In late January 2025, a wave of subtropical air washed over southcentral Alaska, resulting in a series of rainstorms and historically warm weather. At lower elevations, snowpack was completely obliterated and waterbodies were glazed in liquid water — which then refroze when temperatures dropped in the last days of the month.

We’d long been curious about skating potential on the Susitna Flats, a large wetland just across Knik Arm from Anchorage. Summer satellite imagery showed a vast interconnected network of lakes, lagoons, and creeks. True color and false color satellite imagery captured January 28 suggested that the snowpack was gone, and that the waterways were covered in ice. That was enough for four of us to grab our skates and head out the door.

From left to right: finely detailed summer satellite imagery, near-real-time true color satellite imagery dated January 28, 2025, and near-real-time false color satellite imagery from the same day. Is that some nice ice we see?

Sure enough, a very short walk from the road took us to an expanse of tree-lined corridors, icy fields, and four-wheeler trails — all paved with beautiful, skateable ice! We would never have found this amazing skating opportunity without near-real-time satellite imagery.

Though satellite imagery has revolutionized wild ice hunting, it doesn’t provide certainty. Ice that looks promising on satellite imagery may be thin, paved with crunchy voids, or slushy and wet with overflow. You never know until you go!

Attempting to skate overflow on Goose Creek, in Alaska’s Mat-Su Valley. Despite promising satellite imagery, slush and liquid overflow made for a very poor (and short-lived) skating expedition.

Online communities

When it comes to finding wild ice, nothing can truly top a good boots-on-the-ground (skates-on-the-ice?) report. Ice reports are frequently shared via online wild ice communities, most of which focus a specific region.

Some communities share information via email chains, but the biggest and most active use Facebook groups. Facebook groups push recent content out to members, make it easy to share a combination of text, photos, and videos, and allow moderators to control membership and content. Though the role of social media in all of our lives is certainly a fraught subject, there’s no doubt that Facebook groups have greatly increased the accessibility of wild ice and have played a major role in the growth of wild ice skating.

Below are a few examples of active North American wild ice Facebook groups:

Other platforms, such as TikTok or Instagram, can also be sources of ice reports. However, these platforms are much more oriented around pushing eye-catching media out to a general audience, rather than providing a forum to share accurate information within the skating community.

When judging online reports, bear in mind that nobody can test every spot on a waterbody, that conditions can change quickly and in unpredictable ways, and that people have different tolerances for risk. Always treat ice as if you’re the first person on it, even when you’re not. Wild ice is called “wild” for a reason, and only you can be responsible for your own safety.

Published September 2025