18th Annual Lake Lucerne Bottle Rocket War
January 22nd through 25th   
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.
A small amount of time was used for snow scoop rides in the deep snow.
The most time was spent building the igloo that would center the north complex.
Mrs Nemo had one too!
After the initial round of building, we returned to the waterless bar to ready the Krispa class launcher.  Artwork by Sharpie.
Filling the form took only minutes.
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.
Pins are pulled and the wall is ready!  It takes less than 10 minutes to build a wall section.
After the form is filled, it's left for a few minutes to allow the pressure of the snow to create a solid mass.
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.
On Saturday, a sloped, armored extension was added to the top of the east wing and the launchers were moved into place.
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.
The bar night that followed was festive, fiery. The great stick pick-up started at 8:00 AM on Sunday.
It's a good thing we added the sloped extension to the top of the north wall. Note the stick just above the firing port.
The center of the north fort was well targeted.
The space between the forts was stick filled.  Filled with sticks.  Stick-ilated.  There were thousands. The walls of the southern fort were also pounded.
Before leaving, a check of the ice thickness was in order.
It took a while to pick them all up.  Oh, and it was very cold.
There's 17 inches of very good ice.  The ice will not be going out anytime soon.
It took much effort to get through the icy crust to the juicy part underneath.
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We'll be back in 3 weeks to ski and lament the waterless bar.  To be honest, there might be some lamenting of the waterless bar before then.