Skiing the Lake Superior Beach

Late yesterday afternoon the winds died down so I decided to see if I could ski the beach, which is one of my favorite things to do.  I hypothesized that the rain we had a few days ago might have froze, allowing me to ski on top of the deep snow.  Sure enough -- it was a blast!

I parked at the boardwalk and skied west.  Here are a couple of photos looking both ways showing that the beach is definitely covered in snow and ice.  A few days ago there was ice on the lake's surface going a long way out from shore.  However, the recent north and northwest winds consolidated the ice towards shore, which "grew" the icebergs.

 

 

The ice is really building up on the north break wall and lighthouse.

 

 

 

Looking straight north....

 



 

 

 

Although it was cloudy in Grand Marais, it was sunny to our west.  In the next two photos, notice the "blow hole" in the iceberg.  This one is obvious, but others are not.  It is because of these holes in the otherwise thick icebergs that make them dangerous to walk on.  In many cases, these blow holes go all the way down to water level. 

 

 

 

I skied down to the tee pee, which is located most of the way down the beach toward the mouth of Sable River (Second Creek).