North Shore conditions?

[jleech]

I've got  a friend from Fort Worth coming up in 10 days who has got it in his mind that we're going to dive the Madeira on Fri the 14th :

Anyone been up north recently, and seen what the shoreline looks like, or how much snow cover we might expect?

I've done the Madeira in Dec, but don't have any idea what to expect at this time of year.

Any observations (or alternate dive sites) are welcome.

Thanks!

Jeff L.

[DiveCaptDean]

You should have no problems diving it.  Before we had this warmup, the conditions were great..access was a pretty easy walkout...viz was a solid 40+ and water is right around 35deg...I have some buddies going in again soon..l'll let you know what that dive is like.
Deano

[aknelsonone]

We just drove by on the way to Lutsen today.
The Split Rock state park diver parking lot was covered in deep snow. Only one set of tracks, I guess from a maint. vehicle.
The bay behind was ice covered. And ice for several hundert feed onto the lake.
Skiing at Lutsen was nice today but very cold. We hope we have a little warmer temperature for the next few days.
Loooking from above out to the Snow and ice covered Lake was just spectacular. There was some open water it definitly looks like Spring.

Cheers Andreas

 

[jleech]

Just got back from a dive on the Madeira.  Entry was pretty easy, with just needing to cross about 5 ft of thin ice pushed up onto the shore.  An easy step down into 8 inches of water.

Water was 36 degrees, and visibility was about 40 ft.  The parking lot is about 1/3 clear, with just about 2 inches of melting snow on the rest.  The trail was snow covered, but only about 2 inches of granular snow.

All in all a good dive.

We're headed out on Lake Minnetonka tomorrow morning for some ice diving.

Jeff