Western Challenge Regatta, Update,

At this moment, our recent promising venues are under attack of a snow event… as of 4:00 Tuesday, Local time.

We really won’t know until morning. Intermittently we’ve had a number of locations become suitable and then immediately unsuitable,

Here’s what I see so far…
Lake Onalaska near Lacrosse, WI was reported to be boatable, right now @ 0930 , snow is forecast, contingent on that, this must be considered a primary site (under threat of snow,it will be inspected again at in late morning today)

Green Lake, Spicer MN, Froze Sunday Night, as some of those areas got less than 2" of snow, an immediate inspection is called for.

Lake Pepin,
Lake City was reported to be just freezing yesterday (Monday). This really should be looked at by a ranked sailor, in the event it shows promise I’d hate to miss it if it’s there.
At Pepin, was reported Not sure what the upper part of the lake looks like. We had 1/2 the lake frozen out from Pepin on Friday night, then 6 inches of snow, followed by 2 hours of rain, followed by 1 day of high winds...........looks about as poor as possible.

Gull Lake, near Brainerd, site of last year’s western regional regatta was reported to be Frozen on Sunday night, having missed the last snow event. But it’s snowing now… for an assessment plan, we will look at Minnetonka tomorrow, and if shows promise, launch an immediate visit to Gull.; best case there’s only three inches of powder snow…

Lake Minnetonka, main lake, froze Sunday night, snow ice, looked promising for inspection this morning, (the lake is politically impossible, and under threat of snow, by now 2+” have fallen, 1-2” are yet forecast.

Battle Lake, no local report yet, but it’s snowing now, (schools cancelled in the area this afternoon)

Ottertail Lake, no report yet, but pending, it’s snowing there now.

Okoboji Lake, IA, open water…

Lake Winnebago, WI, (another one of those thorny annexation issues) will be inspected tomorrow morning. Froze a week ago, received heavy wet snow on Saturday, flooding the lake. Condition: unknown.

Duluth Harbor, 20 inches of powder snow on a perfect sheet of ice Friday afternoon.

As of noon local time, Little Falls, just south of Brainerd had received 4” of snow, and Alexandria, about 45 DME miles, from Battle & Ottertail lakes had received 3”

The plan, If there is ice, we will go to it, I have a great set of snow runners. Following a brief call discussing our options for the Great Western Challenge Regatta, We will announce a location for the event no later than noon tomorrow, Wednesday (local CST).