we had several days of warms weather a week ago that melted the snow down and opened up some of the edges of the lake near me. After a few days of colder temperatures I went by saturday afternoon for a look and was surprised at how good the ice was and raced home to put together the ice buggy. I spent a good chunk of the afternoon running around all over the lake with a 9m Montana and hadn't bothered to sharpen my blades after last winter and i was starting to loose an edge on the rear blades. There is a lot of dragging side slip noise (plus i was riding nicely powered up) that takes the edge off more and more through the afternoon. I had a helmet cam and sled mounted cam but again in the rush hadn't brought a fully charged battery for the one cam so it only lasted long enough to film the set up. The helmet cam filled up through the afternoon but I missed the best part of the day when winds picked up before sunset and my buddy was using his skates and we chased each other around the lake and it was fantastic colors at sunset.
I sharpened the blades and went back sunday but it was a dull day with a warm south east wind and the surface was grey and starting to get soft and then the wind was spotty so just a little video from sunday in here. The lower cam was charged but the older hero has a crap white balance in dull light.
Used the 9m Montana both days, the GPS that ran as long as the one camera through the afternoon was showing most speeds high 40s and max 50.3 - late day could have been faster with higher winds but i doubt it, there was far more rear end sliding and noise that takes the speed off with the dull blades. Mind you I really wish i had video because i kept looking back at the spray of ice coming off the rear blades in the setting sun and it was catching the light looking like fire.
Mark
(PS - and yes in my push to get Simon riding my buggy he didn't grab his helmet and i didm't realize until watching the video - bad boy! especially on ice)

Awwwwww! Great surface. Too bad about the lines though. While I was watching I was yelling "Nooooo!".

Mark - that's awesome! The ice still sort of freaks me out, but ice buggying (and skiing and skating too for that matter) just looks like too much fun. Thanks for the share.

Just saw the second half of the video. Doh! Bummer about the lines. Nice call on the Floyd music at the end.

good stuff man , nice ride !

Woop Woop

Nice dead man loop! :cool2:

awesome Mark!

Very nice video. Looked like fun.

Questions if I may: Is the leash attached to the breaks so you can hit the cl safety instead of trying to reach for tophat?

If you get snow, how deep can it be before the ice buggy won't work?

And finally, did the lines fail after retying from breaking at the knot or did the knot just come undone?

All just academic questions for me since we don't really get enough ice unless I drive a few hours north. Probably a lot further this year.

....great place, really looks fun

It was a fun ride. It was a bit of pilot error as well causing that line cut. Many times I to.d friends to beware of different parts of the lake that could be a wind shadow and you carry speed with apparent wind and then if you slow kite speed to turn in a dead zone you'll get stuck. When the kite started to collapse I totally forgot for a second the blades sticking out.
I was at the furthest part of the lake and was thinking I just wanted to get the line attached to limp back and at first I was trying to keep the knot small to not use up too much length. The main flying line is slippery and the few knots I tried first were too small and too close to the ends and as soon as the kite went into power the knots just slid apart. I used a stronger knot and used more line and just had to depower the trim more - I'll get it fixed up but after watching the video I need to check that I didn't nick one of the other lines as well.

When I started riding ice many years ago I was always looking down through the ice, feeling worried with every pop and groan but after years of riding I get out and check thickness and scout it out and now look forward to hearing those echoing gunshots of ice growing. It a small kettle lake with still water and somewhat sheltered so it holds good conditions but it's rare to get that nice clean ice. Whenever there is snow or slush it's tracked up by snowmobiles and fisherman leaving ruts - this was a bonus day and now we've had the Sunday warm day followed by wet snow and now co,dear temps and light snow so the blades are out but it'll be good to get back on skis or snowboards and also buggies set up with skis.

I have the leash set up different on different kites and manufacturers. The arcs and PL depowerables I have the safety on a line at the chicken loop. On this Montana it's attached to that brake strap and yes if you release and go to safety it will drop straight down. This has a slightly older set up and that top hat is way too easy to pop a safety release. Many times when reaching up to yank the top lines I bump the top hat and release it. Overall with all my kites it's rare that I need to use a safety even for landing there is often a buddy to catch an arc to avoid the line tangle releasing the bar.

For depth of snow it depends on what that texture of snow is like and how the blade will cut through it. If you get a good hard ice with no snow and then a light snow when it's very cold that snow won't bond to the ice and it blows through that easy. I've ridden many times with patchy conditions were there is a mix of ice with scattered wind blown patches of snow. The blades cut through those patches but you do feel it start to hesitate. If those wind blown patches of snow are a little harder and domed to a couple of inches then I find if I go really fast and hit them that the upwind blade will always start to lift like hydro planing and it'll throw me up on two blades as the snow explodes - it's a whole other fun. I prefer to going to skis if I have any bit of snow cover. So overall for me if it was a half inch of light snow no problem, a half inch of bonded snow then that's cutting down the contact.
Ziggy has made his buggy with 3 snowboards and then had a long narrow block mounted underneath with a blade in case he hits ice patches. It was amazing at how much drag that short block under the boards creates and he's now gone to making what is the same as a switchblade for the snowboards and that small metal edge works on the ice patches and doesn't drag as much and he still has lateral stability.

I pulled off deadmans on Saturday late day with higher winds and they were a lot faster but no camera footage from the better part of the day. Sunday wasn't nearly as nice, and the line cut but still just enough to pull it off on a much bigger arc of travel.

Thanks for the comments - I'm sure that any of us that get to ride in the winter would love to have any of you to come out and ride with us wherever we are to share the fun.

A friend captured that deadman from a different angle (a little further away so you have view larger)

Sweet video Mark! Thanks for sharing:bigok: Glad you found some conditions if only for a short while. Sorry about your lines I've done that myself. Never a good feeling considering how expensive lines are. I'm hoping I get another chance to take my ice bug out before the ice leaves. It's in the garage on standby if mother nature gives me another chance:D