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Iced out: All clear on Mirror Lake and Lake Placid

The ice officially went out on Lake Placid on Tuesday, and most of the snow has melted from Whiteface Mountain. This photo was taken Monday. Photos/Richard Rosentreter/Lake Placid News

LAKE PLACID – It’s official. Both Mirror Lake and Lake Placid have iced out.

“I got the call that the ice was out on Lake Placid at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30, said Judy Shea, who overseas the annual Ice Out Benefit, now in its 22nd year. The benefit raises funds for the Lake Placid Volunteer Ambulance Service. Participants bought tickets that cost $5 each trying to guess the hour and date of the ice out of the aforementioned local bodies of water.

The Ice Out Benefit sold more than 400 tickets and generated just over $5,500 from tickets sales and donations, Shea told the News. This year, proceeds will go toward funding construction of siding on the new addition at the ambulance garage on Mill Pond Drive.

The winner of the Lake Placid contest was Judi Good. Mirror Lake Ice was declared out at 8:30 p.m., Monday, April 22 by the ice meisters, according to Shea, and the winner was Dr. David Welch.

Shea said that Ice Meister Marty Shubert, who along with Mary Shubert was entrusted with determining when the ice is “out” on Lake Placid, was the one who made it official. But she added that a new twist on the announcement came this year – and much to her surprise.

Mirror Lake’s ice officially went out on April 22. This photo was taken Monday.

Shea said that she received a phone call from Steve Short of Adirondack Flying Service who had done a fly over of Lake Placid in an airplane, and he called her to give news of the ice out progress.

“He told me that the ice was pretty well out,” Shea told the News, adding that this was a first in all the years she’s been doing the Ice Out benefit.

“It was interesting. I have people going out by boat to check the ice, now I have people doing a fly over,” Shea said with a laugh.

Records for the Ice Out on Mirror Lake were originally kept by F.B.Giles in 1903 and are the longest records of ice breaking in New York state. Previously town and village historian Mary MacKenzie and now Chris Beattie send the date to State University of New York in Buffalo where a professor conducts studies in climatic changes, according to information that was provided by the LPVAS.

The range for Mirror Lake was March 23 in 2012 to May 13 in 1971, and the range for Lake Placid March 26 in 2012 to May 16 in 1972.

Other winners in the Lake Placid Ice Out were: Ellie McAvoy, 15 minutes off, and Linda Adil, Peter Coffin, Jen Jubin, Jay Ireland, Eddie Lawless, Heather Perkins and Chris Varden were tied for third place.

The other winners in the Mirror Lake Ice Out were: Jen Jubin, Maureen Brooks Herr, Mike Hurley and Olga Krone.

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