✈️ Landing on Ice: Winter Flying at Alton Bay

One of the busiest airports in the State is open for a few weeks in the dead of winter — and it’s paved with ice, not asphalt. We are coming in for a landing at the Alton Bay Ice Runway.

Located on Lake Winnipesaukee in Belknap County, the Alton Bay Seaplane Base and Ice Runway (B18) transforms with the seasons. In the summer, it operates as a public-use seaplane base, offering pilots direct access to the lake and the shops and restaurants that surround the bay. But when winter tightens its grip, something remarkable happens.

For just 4 to 8 weeks each year, crews carefully plow and maintain a fully operational runway — carved directly into the frozen surface of the lake. Complete with a parallel taxiway and designated parking areas marked by GPS coordinates, this frozen airport draws hundreds of pilots from across New England and beyond. On winter weekends, it can become one of the busiest airports in New Hampshire.

Owned and managed by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Aeronautics, the ice runway is a rare aviation experience — giving ski planes, seaplanes, and conventional aircraft a chance to test their skills in true winter conditions.

It’s not every day you can say you landed on a lake. But at Alton Bay, when the ice is thick and the flags are flying, winter aviation takes off in unforgettable fashion.