15th Annual Lake Lucerne Bottle Rocket War

January 18th through 22nd, 2006

Lake Lucerne
Thursday morning was cool and cloudy. Some of us laid out the location of the forts, others fished, and still others observed the fort construction from a warm cabin while eating breakfast.
Lake Lucerne
The wall forms were setup and filled with snow. Three of the forts used a new "Dry Pack" method: snow is piled into the form and the pressure "polymerizes" the crystals in about an hour. The result is a light, strong wall ready for decoration.
Lake Lucerne
During the day, a one horse open sleigh dashed through the snow. As they left us over the fields, laughter was heard all the way.
Lake Lucerne
Saturday started off cold and bright.
Lake Lucerne
The temperature had dropped close to the dew point causing a thick (+2cm) covering of hoarfrost on all the forts.
Lake Lucerne
By mid afternoon all the garrisons were ready for the night's bombardment.
Lake Lucerne
Our fort had snow pillers and a winged war turret.
Lake Lucerne
Launch tubes were carefully placed and aimed in the hopes of scoring direct hits.
Lake Lucerne
SSJ's team added some snow bolders and ideograms of warning to their walls.
Lake Lucerne
The "through the wall" firing system offered the fighters maximum protection during the conflict.
Lake Lucerne
Krispa and company left their walls remarkably unadorned. Many were amazed at the oustandingly blank walls and decided it was either a form of camouflage, some sort of statement of nilism, or a testament to Krispa's love of leisure.
Lake Lucerne
Mr EMT's had a boulder edifice and "through the wall" ports. The war igloo built in the center of the four forts had no offensive capablity.
Lake Lucerne
A pile of defensive snow boulders intended to block skip shots from Mr. EMT was the last of the structures.
Lake Lucerne
The forts were built, the rockets purchased, and the shirts printed. All that was left was for the sun to set.
Lake Lucerne
The sunset turned out to be a good one.
Lake Lucerne
The battle peaked quickly under the dark, star filled sky.
Lake Lucerne
Ignition problems plagued Krispa's fort (second from the right, the one not firing rockets) all night.
Lake Lucerne
Mr EMT was the next force to be tormented with lighting troubles.
Lake Lucerne
SSJ and our fort pumped out a steady stream of poorly aimed ordnance for over an hour.
Lake Lucerne
Mr EMT overcame his ignition difficulties and managed to light a few. The war ended about 90 minutes and 1000 rockets later.
Lake Lucerne
Afterward, the bar was opened. Tales of great shots, bad lighters and glory were exchanged over adult beverages.
Lake Lucerne
The great stick pickup started at 8:30 AM Sunday.
Lake Lucerne
There were an awful lot of spent rockets scattered over the surface of the lake. It seemed to take forever to pick them all up. We may be back sooner than the planned weekend starting on St Patrick's day. When we left, there was 10 inches of ice on the lake and maybe 4 inches of snow.


-Nemo