Seven Days: Vermont's Independent Voice

Freeze-Frame

Imagine an ice-skating rink devoid of pop music and enforced traffic patterns. Such a place does exist — and it’s called Lake Champlain. For two weekends, Great Ice in Grand Isle boasts the lake’s largest skating oval and a host of other activities served on the rocks. Frozen festivities begin Friday with a Christmas tree bonfire, plus bagpiping, an on-ice cookout and a chili cook-off contest. Saturday and Sunday bring skating, snowshoeing, pick-up hockey, ice golf, an ice-fishing derby and sled-dog demos. Chill out the following weekend at the Over and Back Trek to Knight Island and the Frozen Chozen Regatta — a bike race on ice. Brrrilliant.