Wild ice

Just the right conditions turned Lake Monona into a winter wonderland for a few weeks in January

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Pete Witucki lives just a block from Lake Wingra, but for several glorious weeks in January he was unable to resist the siren call of Lake Monona.

“I like that wild ice when we get it and we don’t get it very often,” says Witucki.

Using Nordic skates — a detachable, elongated steel blade that clips on to cross-country ski boots — Witucki got out on the ice about a dozen times during those halcyon days, even skating a marathon one morning by circumnavigating the lake roughly 2.5 times in about two hours.

Until snow fell on Jan. 23, unusually clear, smooth and fast ice turned Lake Monona into a winter wonderland and a magnet for skaters, hikers, fat tire bike riders, dog walkers, ice anglers, ice boat racers and others. Pandemic fatigue likely heightened the feeling of exhilaration many experienced amid the great expanse of ice and sky. That everyone knew it would be fleeting — as it was — made it even more special.

Most years, says Hilary Dugan, a limnologist at UW-Madison, the lakes in Madison have “black ice” that is good for skating and boating for maybe a few days early in the season. “Once precipitation falls on freezing ice, the ice cover turns into a slushy, chunky mess. Wind during freezing will also cause newly frozen pans of ice to pile up on each other — you’ll notice this along the shores of Mendota.”

The lack of precipitation in the first three weeks of January helped keep the Lake Monona ice smooth and thick, says Dugan. On the weekends in particular, people flocked to the lake, some staying for the sunset and a bonfire. Wildlife lovers were on the prowl for spottings of bald eagles, foxes and a snowy owl, who during a rare stop in Madison created a buzz all of its own. When local photographer Kenton Fowler posted a shot of the gorgeous bird on Instagram, someone asked, “I’m dying to get out there and see this beauty tomorrow AM, if I’m lucky! Any tips?”

People just couldn’t get enough. With the lake still clear on Friday, Jan. 21, Tony Sturm was out skating near Yahara Park with his son, Dante, and a friend. Sturm says he always keeps his eyes open for what is normally a brief window to skate on the lake and was delighted to have the ice available for several weeks. One evening he skated more than nine miles in a loop from Yahara Park to Olin Park to Olbrich Park. “I don’t ever remember it being this long a season,” he says. “This is amazing.”

Witucki was also back on the ice that day, this time with his young kids, Rory and Tess. As the two skated away from shore, Witucki joked that he’d have to pick them up at Olbrich Park, due east about three-quarters of a mile, if traveled by ice.

Over near the beach at Olbrich Park, Jo and Ben August were just finishing up an afternoon skate. “We’ve lived here for 33 years,” says Ben. “Only a couple of years can I remember the ice being as smooth and consistent as it is this year.”

The “spectacular” ice even inspired Paul Cooley of Madcity Paragliding and Bob Cook of Kite Riders to create a new sport: call it “ice boarding” or “winging on the ice.”

“Normally we’d take our skis and snowboards and our kites out, but we don’t have the snow to grip them,” says Cooley. So they came up with the idea to retrofit skateboards with blades and use the “wings” Cook uses in the summer for watersports.

“So we’re out experimenting,” says Cooley, as he gets ready to hit the ice that afternoon with one of his prototypes. The two have talked to a manufacturer about starting to make the ice boards and hope to have them available for sale later this season.

The next day Cook and Cooley returned to Olbrich Beach, offering free demos and lessons. It was bitterly cold, but sunny and the glistening lake was full of skaters, bike riders, walkers and ice boats. That night snow fell and the magic of endless clear ice in the middle of the city came to a close.

But Cooley is philosophical, noting that the ice boaters who swarmed Lake Monona in recent weeks are used to driving to other states to find the kind of ice they need for their sport. Now that he and Cook have been bitten by the ice boarding bug, they could pursue a similar strategy: “We might end up traveling to do it.” 

3,359 acres:

area of Lake Monona

74 feet:

maximum depth

27 feet:

mean depth

Composition of bottom:

30% sand

25% gravel

5% rock

40% muck

7 Beaches:

Hudson, Esther, Olbrich, Bernie’s, Brittingham, Olin, B.B. Clarke

5 Boat landings:

Olbrich Park Access; Tonyawatha Park Boat Ramp; Winnequah Trail; Law Park; Olin Park

Fish:

panfish; largemouth bass; northern pike; walleye; musky; smallmouth bass; sturgeon; catfish

[Editor's note: This story was updated to include B.B. Clarke as a Lake Monona beach per the WDNR.]