Overview
- Freshwater and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office Water Patrol, which declared ice-out at 5:38 p.m. Friday, say boats can now cross the lake without hitting hard ice.
- Ice-out means a boat can travel from any shore to any other shore, through channels and around islands, without being stopped by solid ice.
- The 2026 call comes about 10 days earlier than the lake’s April 13 median, yet it follows earlier ice-outs in 2025 and 2024.
- Safety guidance includes wearing a life jacket, expecting very cold water that can cause hypothermia, telling someone your plan, and watching children near the water.
- Monitors confirm the status by boating through Minnetonka’s bays and channels, and the lake’s size makes it a useful gauge for other metro-area lakes; the earliest known ice-out was March 11, 1878.