Mark Avery spends three or four days a week on Lake Morey, riding his tricked-out golf course lawn mower. It has a rotating plastic brush roller that sweeps away the dry snow from the surface of the ice.
For about 15 years the family has built, and maintained, a 4.5-mile loop, which draws visitors from all over the world to experience the wild beauty of ice skating outside on a Vermont lake.
Avery and his family own the nearby Lake Morey Resort.
They make a little bit of money renting skates, and the ice brings in guests during a season that’s otherwise quiet in Fairlee, which isn’t close to any ski areas.
It’s been a worthwhile investment, he says, and so when his new insurance company told him they did not want to cover the liability of maintaining the ice, he kind of freaked out.
“It was a kick in the gut. I was panicked. It was heartbreaking,” Avery says. “And just to have it go away just didn’t seem right, that the insurance industry could dictate something that’s far more important to people than insurance.”
It's been tough maintaining the ice over the past few seasons, as climate change has brought warmer winters.
Last year, it was only safe to skate on the lake for three weeks.
And so there’s a bitter irony, Avery says, in the insurance company not wanting to take a risk on ice skating while they’re forced to contend with human-induced natural disasters across the country.
“Floods in the Northeast. Hurricanes down South. Tornadoes in the central U.S.,” Avery says. “The human-induced storms that we’re getting that are just so powerful is making the insurance industry really struggle.”
It was a kick in the gut. I was panicked. It was heartbreaking. And just to have it go away just didn’t seem right, that the insurance industry could dictate something that’s far more important to people than insurance.Mark Avery, co-owner of Lake Morey Resort
But this year has been perfect in this part of Vermont; cold and dry, and Avery has 10 inches of black ice to play with.
Once Avery heard his insurance company wouldn't cover the skating this season, he began meeting with the Fairlee Select Board with the hope that the town would take over the maintenance.
And at the eleventh hour, as the season was about to open, the town met with its insurance company and got the go ahead to wrap the skating into its recreation program.
Avery's not going anywhere. He'll continue driving his golf cart roller around the ice, but he’ll lease the equipment to the town, and act as a town-contracted employee when he’s doing the work.
He says it won’t cost the town hardly anything.
The only difference skaters might notice is that this year the entrance has moved from the resort to the town beach.
The skating usually opens in mid-January, and all of the insurance uncertainty did not delay the season in the end.
Jessica Henderson, who lives in Boston, says she's been thinking about driving over since hearing about the loop.
She finally made it with a few friends, on the first day of the season, which also happened to be her 27th birthday.
It was her first time skating out in the open, with the wind and cold, and no side walls to hang on to like the indoor rinks she's accustomed to.
She was a little overwhelmed but absolutely loved it, and says she'll be back.
“I think it's really great just to have like, free, recreational spaces outside,” Henderson says. “I think that's something that a lot of places should do, 'cause it's really hard to find places nowadays where you can just go, and do something and it's not like an exorbitant price.”
Bob Alvarenga lives in nearby Canaan, New Hampshire, and he’s been skating on Lake Morey for about 10 years.
He was little more philosophical about it.
Skating on a natural pond or lake can only happen when everything aligns. The cold. Snowfall. Rain.
He says he’d happily pay a fee to come do it, but the fact that it’s free, and it’s here, makes it that much more special.
“It’s a short season. You know, sometimes it’s a matter of just three weeks,” he says. “You know, all it has to do is go above freezing for a day and then it’s just a layer of water, and so you really have to grab it while you can. It’s definitely a carpe diem situation.”
Carpe diem. Seize the day. When the ice is good, go out and get it.
The skating loop on Lake Morey will be open as long as conditions permit.
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