Posted on 01/06/2018 6:20:14 PM PST by nickcarraway
Have you seen this video of a guy skating on Fountain Lake in Byrd Park?
Megan Wise and I decided to check for ourselves if it was safe to walk on the ice in Central Virginia. I emailed Jeremy Hoffman at the Science Museum to pick his brain:
This is a picture of Dr. Hoffman doing something very important.
He pointed us to Minnesota - they know their ice there!
While ice is never 100 percent safe, we now had a goal - to see if we could find ice 4-5 inches thick on Fountain Lake in Byrd Park.
Although we saw some open water on one side of the lake, with some Geese in it, we went to the other side, and it looked frozen solid. We drilled into the ice and found around 4 inches. To be honest, we were surprised!
Megan Wise gingerly stood up - no cracking, no sounds. She was totally fine. The ice supported her weight.
I'm not going to ask her how much she weighs, but I don't think it's a lot.
So we decided I should give it a go: I weigh much more than Megan (about 230 pounds) and it held me too!
As you can see from the pictures, we didn't venture far from the edge.
WE DO NOT RECOMMEND YOU TRY THIS YOURSELF. But the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says if you can find 4 to 5 inches of solid ice, it's safe to walk on. And with the deep freeze over the next few days (through Jan. 8), the ice will only get thicker.
But remember: NO ICE IS 100 percent safe!
Nothing is completely safe.
Life *is* risk.
The only time your life is not at risk is when you are dead.
The death sentence is the same all over: One per person.
That’s the only way most of us ever skated——on frozen ponds and other bodies of water.
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Near me in MA I often see Ice Fishing on ponds during the winter. I went over today — didn’t see a single one. Very surprising, because this winter has been terrible. Negative double digits on many nights. I’m pretty sure our ponds are safe, but I have no reason to try and verify.
BTW — Ponds and Lakes are one thing, but rivers should not be trusted. If you fall through, the current can quickly take you away from the hole you made, and then you’re lost.
Seems in the Winter the same strategy can be used to test the ice.
To answer the question: I always prefer skating on icy ponds...as opposed to the non-icy ponds which require skis or tubes.
Next article by these nitwits will be: “Is it safe to walk across a busy street?”
When I was a kid, Dad made us skating rinks in the back yard. He shoveled the snow into a perimeter berm and then flooded the rink. In the morning, et voila ICE RINK. It was really cool. Lots of hockey played on those small rinks.
The nice thing is we didn’t have to worry about falling through the lawn underneath.
Now if only Dad had bought a Zamboni. ;>)
"...frozen pond..."
Wow, I hadn’t thought of that.
From cub scouts when I was a kid:
1 inch keep off
2 inches 1 may
3 inches small groups
4 inches ok
My friend has a place on a lake in Northern Wisconsin. Usually by Christmas their ice is 10-12” thick. they can drive trucks on it.
I tried that last night and it didn’t work?
I always used a stout pole, about 1.5 inches thick and 5-6 feet long, blunt ended.
Jab the pole at the ice, straight down, with serious force. You are trying to pock it through the ice. If it does not go through, or crack the ice, the ice is good to walk on. Continue with the jabbing as you work your way across the ice. Ice almost always thins toward where it gets dangerous, so you should have warning.
My son had a very large backyard skating rink for his boys when they were younger.
The dog used to spot a squirrel and leap onto the rink to chase it———and go skidding across——very funny.
,
Lots of experience on iced over rivers.
The current makes the ice levels tricky, and they tend to get thiner toward the shoreline.
I used the pole mentioned previously. It works well. I backed away from thin ice many times, and do not recall falling though, unless I knew the water was shallow, and working to make the crossing the last few feet from shore. That might have happened a time or two, but icy water in your boots is no fun!
Personally, I would never venture out to the middle of the pond/lake/livestock pool to tempt fate.
Me and cold water don't get along.
watch out for all of the ice holes.
Ask George and Peter Bailey!
A little tinkering with the lawn mower....
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