Between 22 and 23 January, Charles X Gustav sent orders to his senior officers to investigate the ice around Funen and find a crossing to Ærø, and onward to Funen and Langeland. On 24 January, Wrangel reported he rode on horseback along the coast from Kolding to Frederiksodde and that the water was completely open. The army command deliberated about crossing the ice towards the Ærø strait at Assens on Funen, a good distance south of Frederiksodde. Swedish scouts rode out on the ice east of Øsby and spotted Assens, but they made the assessment the ice was still too weak to cross. Another reconnaissance patrol was dispatched from Als towards Ærø, but they established the strait was open and was filled with ice floes.