Althouse: Perfect ice skating conditions — on Rabbit Lake, in Alaska.

November 12, 2023

Perfect ice skating conditions — on Rabbit Lake, in Alaska.

21 comments:

Joe Smith said...: That would be very creepy...but very cool.; 11/12/23, 11:47 AM
Joe Smith said...: Perfect conditions for standing above and shooting fish.

Speaking of...did anyone see the previews for the new 'Napoleon' movie?

One scene has the French shooting cannonballs at enemy troops marching on a frozen lake covered in snow.

The ice breaks and the enemies all fall in and die, after screaming, "Ice, it's a trap!!"

What idiot marches his troops across a frozen lake and doesn't know it?; 11/12/23, 11:53 AM
Aggie said...: What a unique experience. I've been on black ice before, but this.....with the water clarity. Just stunningly pretty. Nature is awesome.; 11/12/23, 11:58 AM
n.n said...: Nature does art in 3d relief. Awesome.; 11/12/23, 12:00 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Btw. Dick Cavett still alive.; 11/12/23, 12:18 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: A good reminder that while safety is a good priority, it is NOT the highest value.

See second video I linked to on 11/11/23, 11:25 AM - the Frost post.

With reference to the Covid histeria.

Oh wait, it’s not appropriate to use that word anymore. It just crossed my mind as to why I don’t see it anywhere anymore.; 11/12/23, 12:35 PM
rehajm said...: Those videos with perfect ice are always fun. Does Ann still skate? Those were fun, too…; 11/12/23, 12:55 PM
MadisonMan said...: I've never liked skating on ice like that. Too much transparency.; 11/12/23, 1:15 PM
Tofu King said...: That would make me very nervous.; 11/12/23, 1:18 PM
Marcellus said...: Rabbit Lake is a 4.5 mile hike from a trailhead on the edge of Anchorage. Our city has the greatest backyard of anywhere in
Chugach State Park.
Singular conditions. Last week we got buried under 2 feet+ of snow, with another foot predicted tonight. So now the skiing is great.; 11/12/23, 1:33 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Inspired by the lyrics “no one knows what is like to be the bad man” I’m considering changing my screen name to Lem the artificially intelligent. Although I can’t possibly write such perfectly structured sentences, I do aspire to someday have that ability come… artificially. I think it’s unfair to censor this nascent… people’s of the intertubes. After all, they did not ask to be brought into this world of misery and Trump.

Today, I’m proud to say I stand with the peoples of AI. From the jargon to the meat on the bones.; 11/12/23, 1:44 PM
Joe Bar said...: Re: the Napoleon movie. That was the battle of Austerlitz, and it did, indeed happen. The Russians retreated over a frozen swamp, and the French kept firing. From accounts there were few casualties due to drowining, so the movie "enhanced" the experience.; 11/12/23, 3:07 PM
Joe Bar said...: I have slated on ice like that in my lifetime. It was very nice. It requires specific conditions to do that. I assume either Rapids or very slow freezing. LOL; 11/12/23, 3:08 PM
Quaestor said...: Joe Smith writes, "What idiot marches his troops across a frozen lake and doesn't know it?"

The battle was Austerlitz, and the "idiot" was General Dmitry Sergeyevich Dokhturov of the Imperial Russian Army, and he knew what he was doing and what was beneath his soldiers' feet. Napoleon's army had succeeded in dividing and separating the Russians from their Austrian allies. Dokhturov's brigade (8,500 men) came to be attacked on three sides by elements of Marshal Soult's IV corps. Dukhturov had been positioned very badly by Tsar Alexander, who had taken personal command of the Russian forces against the heated objections of Mikhail Kutuzov, one of the few professional officers in the Russian Army. To Dujhturov's rear was a group of three shallow lakes formed by the Littlawa River, the two directly behind his brigade being more like deep marches than lakes and completely frozen over. To escape envelopment and annihilation Dukhturov ordered a retreat over the frozen marshes. The weight of his men and artillery caused the ice to break and give way in many locations, and it's certain that the French artillery contributed to the ensuing confusion. A few wounded men did drown in the freezing water, but the greatest effect was to slow the Russian withdrawal to a crawl and to transform an orderly retreat into a rout. The French tried to maneuver around the lakes and encircle the Russians but failed. Though nearly 2,000 were killed or taken prisoner, Dukhturov succeeded in rallying his disordered command and completing his retreat.

The "ice incident" became a feature of French propaganda. It was neither a feature of Napoleon's plan nor was it a "trap"; it was just a contingency of war that could have been avoided if Alexander had not been an egomaniac in jealous awe of Napoleon. I'm disheartened to learn the movie promotes the myths when the true facts of the Emperor's career are sufficiently astonishing. Shame on you, Ridley Scott.; 11/12/23, 3:29 PM
pacwest said...: 50+years in AK and I've never seen that. Like scuba and ice skating mixed together. WAY COOL!

I've hiked that area in the summer before. A big pond on a ridge was so clear and blue you couldn't tell how deep it was, but it took a long time for the penny to reach the bottom.

Used to snow machine in that area, but they closed it for SMs years ago to protect the tundra.; 11/12/23, 4:14 PM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: I've had the privilege of skating on ice like that several times before, most notably on Grayling Bay [grayling are a fish which spawns there] at the headwaters of the Yukon River, near Carcross, Yukon. Being in the St-Elias rain shadow, there's very little snow. The bay tended to freeze slowly and well so we skated on ice like that for weeks, for lack of snow. Our opening hockey game of the season was always on the bay as we waited for the ground to freeze hard enough to flood the school's rink with our fire equipment. Special memories from half a century ago. Thanks.; 11/12/23, 4:36 PM
Joe Smith said...: @Quaestor and @Joe Bar

Thanks : ); 11/12/23, 4:52 PM
Quaestor said...: Joe Smith writes, "The ice breaks and the enemies all fall in and die, after screaming, 'Ice, it's a trap!!'"

Egad! That was a cliché when Admiral Akbar said it, and the French don't even have tentacles. (At least none that I've noticed.); 11/12/23, 6:17 PM
Narr said...: When I see the Napoleon trailers my heart sinks.

I was afraid that the Austerlitz episode would get mangled, and apparently they have the French shooting at the Pyramids . . . .

Scott did an OK job on a low budget with The Duellists after Conrad's novella; it looked good (how could it not?) but the score was terrible. Is the music original in this one, I wonder.

Not sure I want to watch three hours of Phoenix either.; 11/12/23, 6:37 PM
typingtalker said...: I blame Global Warming.; 11/13/23, 6:27 AM
Hannio said...: My mother and I rented a rowboat at a lake in the German alps when I was growing up. Somewhere near Garmish-Partenkirchen, I think. We rowed out onto the stillest, calmest water you have ever seen. And, being an alpine lake, the water was perfectly clear, which, along with the stillness, meant you could see to the bottom, just like in the video. It felt like we were suspended in air 20 feet over the bottom of the lake. Fantastic feeling, as well as quite unnerving.; 11/14/23, 10:25 AM