Thank you for helping make the 2025 Frozen Assets Festival and 5K Run, Walk, and Skate one of the best ever! Throughout the week, Frozen Assets not only brought the community together, but it also educated people and raised awareness for our number one asset – the lakes!
Join us on Saturday, February 8th, 2025, for the 6th annual Frozen Assets 5K Run/Walk with Major Sponsor Associated Bank and Hosting Sponsor The Edgewater. Shake up your fitness routine and experience our lakes from a whole new perspective – from frozen Lake Mendota! The Frozen Assets 5K Run/Walk truly is a bucket-list experience – this event is one of the only races worldwide to be held ENTIRELY on a frozen lake.
Your registration in this event raises important funds for lake improvement projects, water quality monitoring, and education!
Day: Saturday, February 8th, 2025
Time: 8 – 9:30 a.m. check in | 10 a.m. start
Location: The Edgewater & frozen Lake Mendota (*New in 2025 – if ice conditions are inadequate, the 5K will be moved to a land course)
Course: The 5K course begins off the end of The Edgewater’s pier. Runners and walkers will head out toward Picnic Point, past the Memorial Union, before looping back and finishing at The Edgewater.
Registration cost:
$45 for walking/untimed participants
$55 for chip-timed participants
FREE for children 10 & under with purchase of adult registration
Participants receive a super soft t-shirt, courtesy of Lands’ End, and participants 21+ will receive a post-race beer, courtesy of Michelob Ultra.
EVENT FAQS: cleanlakesalliance.org/frozen-assets/#5K
Join Clean Lakes Alliance on Saturday, February 8th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for Frozen Assets, with Hosting Sponsor The Edgewater! The family-friendly festival at The Edgewater helps connect the community with the lake through free winter activities. Festival attendees can see large show kites, science demonstrations, and try ice skating and snowshoeing. Festival goers can also enjoy free hot chocolate and more!
Each year, this FUNraiser, FRIENDraiser, and FUNDraiser highlights the year-round value of our lakes, while raising money to protect our waters through lake improvement projects, educational programming, and our volunteer water quality monitoring program. When the lakes freeze in Greater Madison, they become our largest parks. Clean Lakes Alliance hopes community members and visiting guests can interact with our “frozen assets” and appreciate their importance, even in the middle of the winter.
Saturday, February 8th, 2025 (10 a.m. – 3 p.m.)
The Edgewater & Lake Mendota
FREE, open to the public
2025 Ice and Snow Sailing World Championships, Lake Mendota
Kites on Mendota with Wisconsin Kiter’s Club, Lake Mendota
Free hot chocolate, Grand Plaza
Free ice skating and free skate rental, The Edgewater Ice Rink and Skate Shop
Try snowshoeing, Lake Mendota
Explore how UW-Madison Center for Limnology monitors our lakes in the winter months, Lake Mendota
Play Plinko (Lake-O), Nolen Gallery
Spin the Price is Right Wheel, Nolen Gallery
Snow Snake with members of Ho-Chunk Nation, Lake Mendota
WI Salt Wise booth – hear about how salt use can impact our lakes, outside
More events to be announced!
8 – 9:45 a.m. Check in for Frozen Assets 5K Run/Walk, 5th Floor Registration Tables
10 a.m. Frozen Assets 5K Run/Walk begins, Lake Mendota off The Edgewater Pier
10 a.m. – 1 p.m. UW Physics “What’s Colder Than Ice?” Lake Mendota
10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. IceCube demonstrates Space Dust & Neutrinos, Outside
2:00 p.m. Clean Lakes 101 family-friendly science presentation, “Frozen Frontiers – Secrets of Life Beneath the Ice,” The Edgewater Grand Ballroom C
More events to be announced!
Join Clean Lakes Alliance at The Edgewater for the Frozen Assets Festival! We’ll have FREE, family-friendly activities on frozen Lake Mendota! Thank you to our hosting sponsor The Edgewater, and our other sponsors for making this community event possible.
The Frozen Assets Festival will kick off with the Frozen Assets 5K Run/Walk, held entirely on the ice in front of The Edgewater. The rest of the day will include family-friendly activities on the ice and The Edgewater Plaza.
Clean Lakes Alliance’s LakeForecast water quality monitoring program completed its 12th season in 2024. This program is entirely volunteer-implemented, with over 100 trained monitors assessing water quality conditions from nearshore and offshore locations across all five Yahara lakes (Mendota, Monona, Wingra, Waubesa, and Kegonsa). From Memorial Day through Labor Day, volunteers recorded water clarity, air and water temperature, waterfowl presence, the extent of floating plant debris, and the severity of green algae and cyanobacteria at public beaches, lakeside parks, and private piers. Submitted data can be seen in real-time on Lakeforecast.org or our free app, allowing the public to stay up to date on current lake conditions.
Ice on! Cold nighttime temperatures, combined with cold water and light winds, helped Lake Mendota officially freeze on December 25, 2024, as declared by the Wisconsin State Climatology Office. Two days later, on December 27th, Lake Mendota reopened as high temperatures climbed well into the 40s. The largest lake in the Yahara Watershed froze for the first time in the 2024-2025 winter season just five days after December 20th, which is the median ice-on date for Lake Mendota. The latest date ice-on has been declared is January 30th, and that took place in 1932.
A winter of warm weather meant a Frozen Assets like we’ve never seen before. While poor ice conditions meant nothing could be held on Lake Mendota, we still engaged with community members on The Edgewater’s Grand Plaza!
Due to continued warm weather, Clean Lakes Alliance has made the decision to cancel all Frozen Assets events scheduled to take place on Lake Mendota. The decision was made after multiple days of drilling test holes in Lake Mendota, as well as speaking with experts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a local meteorologist, and local law enforcement officials. Events including skydiving, Kites on Mendota, snowshoeing, pond hockey, and the Mary B will not be at Frozen Assets this year.
Ice on! Temperatures below zero, combined with cold water and low wind, helped Lake Mendota officially freeze on January 15, 2024, as declared by the Wisconsin State Climatology Office. Lake Mendota, the largest lake in the Yahara Watershed, froze a full 26 days after December 20th, which is the median ice-on date for the largest lake in the Yahara River Watershed. The January 15th freeze is the 3rd latest freeze date since monitoring began over 170 years ago. The latest ice-on date is January 30th, and that took place in 1932.
Clean Lakes Alliance’s LakeForecast water quality monitoring program completed its 11th season in 2023. This program is entirely volunteer implemented, with 90 trained monitors assessing water quality conditions from nearshore and offshore locations across all five Yahara lakes (Mendota, Monona, Wingra, Waubesa, and Kegonsa). From Memorial Day through Labor Day, volunteers recorded water clarity, air and water temperature, waterfowl presence, extent of floating plant debris, and the severity of green algae and cyanobacteria at public beaches, lakeside parks, and private piers. Submitted data can be seen in real-time on lakeforecast.org or our free app allowing the general public to stay up to date on current lake conditions.
We reached out to 20 lakefront restaurants to find out what they felt makes them special – besides their great food and drinks! The following are the responses we received and included in our 2023 Greater Madison Lake Guide.
