Took a stroll on light touring kick-around skis along the west shore of Electric Lake's north end. A veritable crust buffet, mostly breakable. Only spot we found with no surface crust was a northeast spot where it has remained shaded. Most of the time at about 8,600 feet. Very shallow depth, usually around 20 cm. Dug a series of hand pits on east, north and northeast facing slopes. Found a stout ice shelf on all of these, usually about 6 cm from the ground. Below that, very dry, loose large grains. Above that, sometimes a cohesive slab of 12 cm to 15 cm, sometimes a surface crust and then loose large grains to the lower ice crust.
Surreal time along the shore, as the ice was settling with sounds ranging from groaning, creaking, howling, gurgling, far-off thunder, whistling and cracking. Talked to one person fishing who said the water was about four to five feet higher last week. Cracking of the ice along the shore has pulled the earth away from the bank. By contrast, on Gooseberry Reservoir yesterday, the lake was solid, flat and snow covered. At Gooseberry, measured a recent ice fisher hole as two feet of solid ice before hitting open water. Equally thin to non-existent snowpack in the sage and scrub surrounding Gooseberry.
