Nemo got me! Any advice to help my rink stay alive

[Greybear]

The storm hit the north shore around 2pm on Friday. As a good Rinker should, I went out and handled the inches of white stuff every few hours and was fairly confident that I could keep up with the storm......

Then I went to bed.......woke up to 20" of snow and drifts of 30"+ now what do I do? I built a ramp in preparation of getting the snow blower in there but there is a layer of slush and water that the snow blower can not get through..... am I done for the season?

I believe that the weight of the snow has pushed any water remaining under the ice up and over the edges or through any cracks to create this layer of slush........the ice is still 6-8 inches thick but snow blower is useless.

Joe or anyone any advice??

[kevmac]

I would love to say let it sit and freeze until the slush has a chance to harden but with 20+" of snow that's going to act as an insulator more than anything else. If there is anyway you can get some of the snow off the slush so that it can freeze that would be my best suggestion. Have lots of friends with shovels?

[Greybear]

Thanks for your response Kevmac - That is what I was thinking as well. We moved off about half of the top layer of snow with the help of some regular skaters and the wifey. This is the challenge of living in New England it is 22 degrees today and will be 7 tonight but Mondays forecast is 45 and rain?? I will see how things play out and adjust my plan accordingly. We had a lot of great times on the rink this year and even got in a practice for my sons mite team on Thursday night before the storm....

I'll keep at it, all of the time and effort is well worth the memories we make on a backyard rink.

Keep skating!

BPG

[HockeyMom]

ditto!! everything you just said.

I just shoveled mine off by hand. I made a lot of huge slushy footprints. I tried to smooth them out as best I could with the shovel and then did a very thick coat of hot water. We're supposed to have highs above freezing most of the week, and evenings below freezing. I'm hoping that helps smooth it back out.

Have fun shoveling! (?)

[Greybear]

Thanks HockeyMom -

Here was the rink in its glory....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njdjyuNQXgg

Uploaded on Jan 31, 2013
The Graber Rink 2013 - Ice surface 50' x 60', 24K gallons of water, 9' x 9' warming hut, hot water tap for rink rake zamboni, 2 half sized pond hockey goals and two full size hockey nets, fire pit and seating, four 500w work lights at one end and two 500w work lights at the other (not on in the video).

A true labor of love.....or I'm officially nuts....surprisingly comfortable with either.

[PCMM]

We had the same issue. 20 inches of snow on our pond as a result of the storm!! You have to get the snow off or the ice underneath will be ruined! I took us 3.5 hrs to clear the rink using a single stage snowblower, near the end it was struggling as we uncovered the last areas . The snow did its damage and we had up to 2 inches of water ontop of the ice at the south end of the pond. We cleared and smoothed as best we could. And let the -10 overnight temps fix the rest!

[Joe]

Lots of similar reports I'm hearing from friends in MA and CT. We were very lucky...it never got above 20 degrees so our snow was very light and fluffy, and my rink has been a solid-to-the-ground slab for 3-4 weeks now (lots of shade & concrete base). I cleared it with the snowblower today...about 30" worth. I think HockeyMom's approach will work the best...if your rink is small enough or you can get enough hands (and backs) to help. A snowblower will just chew it all up and clog, but doing it the old-fashioned way at least allows you to shovel just the snow. You can always resurface over your footprints later. Hopefully still a month left in the season!