Strawberry Slush Spots

[Kent]

Slush spots are created by water getting onto the ice and mixing with the snow. Water gets onto the ice from cracks in the ice. As the ice sheet grows and expands it cracks and refreezes many times. I have been on Strawberry when there was no snow on the ice and I was amazed at how many small cracks there were in the ice. I think this year it was a bigger problem than usual because it appears that it snowed on the ice when the ice was really thin. The added weight of the snow on the ice can also create cracks in the thinner ice, which in turn creates slush. If the ice gets thick before snow falls on it there is less issues with slush. With the cold temperatures the slush does refreeze but new areas keep showing up with new cracks forming.
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