18th Annual Lake Lucerne Bottle Rocket War

Friday morning was cloudy and frosty. It was better than Thursday night when we found that the waterline between the bar and the well had failed. As water poured from the north wall of the bar's basement, I briefly entertained the idea of an in-the-ground pool under the bar. There will be digging in April/May.

Fort building started at around 10:00 AM. In 1 hour 15 minutes most of the forts were done. It was as if we had done this 17 times before and had it down.

The most time was spent building the igloo that would center the north complex.

A small amount of time was used for snow scoop rides in the deep snow.

After the initial round of building, we returned to the waterless bar to ready the Krispa class launcher. Artwork by Sharpie.

Mrs Nemo had one too!

Later in the afternoon, a few more wall sections were added to the east wing of the northern fort. The wall forms that have served us so well in the past years, continued to work very well.

Filling the form took only minutes.

After the form is filled, it's left for a few minutes to allow the pressure of the snow to create a solid mass.

Pins are pulled and the wall is ready! It takes less than 10 minutes to build a wall section.

On Saturday, a sloped, armored extension was added to the top of the east wing and the launchers were moved into place.

Behind the 1 foot thick walls, chairs were placed and more launchers were added. The northern fort had a total of 5 Krispa class launchers. The southern complex had only 2 and an older style pipe launcher.

Just before 7:00 PM, last minute peace talks broke down between the two sides and ambassadors were recalled. At 7:00 PM the southern fort was put on tactial alert (note the red glow).

While the northern group discussed how to start, the southern fort cried, "Havoc!", and let slip the dogs of war.

The north quickly regained its balance and the battle was joined.

The walls of both forts took quite the pummeling

We estimated that over 4000 rockets were fired in just over 1 hour. All were wearing eye protection.

Near the end of the war, I took this picture of an attack from the south fort on the north (with some incoming from the north). The camera battery succumbed to the cold just after this picture.

By the end of the war, some older rockets were used. They worked well, but not as well as the new ordnance.

Caches of the newer stuff were found just before the end. I was impressed by the performance of the camera that captured these images in the sub-zero cold during the entire conflict. Didn't think it would make it to the end.