[upthesaukee]

From several posts on Alton FB pages:

****THE ICE IS UNSAFE-UPDATE!***
This weekend Alton and Wolfeboro Fire Departments joined for an ice rescue training. We quickly learned that something almost fell through the ice off of Brewster Beach. Right at a large crack in the ice a few hundred feet from shore there was a 10' round circle of floating broken chunks of ice. During our second evolution Alton was called for an an actual ATV through the ice at Smith point. Our airboat diverted from the training to the call. We ended up getting 2 calls for vehicles through the ice Saturday. Thankfully no one was injured and the vehicles have been recovered. Both incidents involved people who are experienced on the lake.
What we learned about the current lake conditions:
-All of the common pressure ridges are in place, most of them have broken chunks of floating ice or open water. VERY UNSAFE, avoid these at all costs!
-There is a mix of broken refrozen chunk ice and black ice ranging in thickness from 1-5 all across the broads and bays.
If we can make any suggestion especially with the fishing derby coming up, please please keep vehicles of any kind off of the ice, if you must go out drill as you go, and stay away from the pressure ridges or dark colored ice.
When the locals say it's bad.... It's bad....

Be careful out there!

Dave