When is it safe to walk on a frozen lake?

[Gandalf]

I have been walking around the lake near my home for several days now. It is good exercise and this week is a week for The Smiths and a series of studio outtakes. However The Smiths, though important, are not the point of this thread. No, this thread has a somewhat different agenda and it is something that I have spent some time considering whilst listening to Morrissey moan about having not got his leg over very much. Basically whilst marching around the lake I have been looking at it closely and it is fascinating. It is dead in the middle of winter here and the lake is totally frozen over and it is extremely bright to look at with the layer of snow still upon it. It's a bit like Superman 3 when he freezes the lake with his breath. I am tempted to try and lift it too, but I know I am no Amir Khan. I am also tempted to take some steps upon it, but I worry about falling through and basically dying of hypothermia. I stare at the lake all the time and there are footsteps on there. People have definitely taken the leap and walked over it.

A few nights ago it was -10'C and I am guessing that would have been my best time to take the leap of faith. Today was about 2'C and there was no way I was going to step on it. Maybe this thread is for those crazy Canadian seal hunters as they tend to have snow and stuff. So my question is this....when is it safe to walk on a frozen lake?

[Mark TKO]

it isn't . I never feel sorry for anyne who goes through ice on a frozen lake . Have seen them on there even when there are clear signs not to go on. Because 'they know best' . Simple don't do it


Your post could have simply said "When is it safe to walk on a frozen lake ?" too

[Gandalf]

I haven't posted for a few days, so I had to get a paragraph in. My usual preamble thingy.

It is awfully tempting because I see those shoe prints in the snow/ice and it all looks so exciting, but the sensible me always resists and carries on marching.

I've never seen a lake frozen over before. So this is interesting. It looks really pretty too and is kind of blinding when you look at it. Maybe a bit like those mental people on too much morphine in hospitals who start seeing the gateway to heaven and all that.

Still, it's not much of a heaven when you fall through the ice into ice cold water and certainly not when you are a dead atheist.

[Gandalf]

It's only teenage wasteland as they say. That is for the kids.

[Kev]

If you plan to walk of a frozen lake you will need to take precautions. Firstly you need to make sure are tethered to something. I suggest a cooker, something solid, heavy and secure.

Make sure you are securely fastened to the cooker and only then attempt to go into the lake. I would take the cooker with you and carry it to the centre of the lake. As long as you are ropes to it you will be fine.

It would be nice if Greenbeanz could go with you, it would be a nice day out for you both. Obviously Greenbeanz would probably need his own cooker, and then for maximum safety you could rope up to each others.

[Nameless]

When the ice is uniformly at least 10 cm thick, it's quite safe. We have a river here, a couple of km long, it's the first (or second) biggest ice ring in the world by winter, everybody goes skating on it, they make tests every now and then to make sure it's always safe, just make sure there hasn't been a couple of days over 0 before trhe day you decide to walk on it.

[ruthless rocco]

its safe to walk on when its frozen.

[Beanz]

If you plan to walk of a frozen lake you will need to take precautions. Firstly you need to make sure are tethered to something. I suggest a cooker, something solid, heavy and secure.

Make sure you are securely fastened to the cooker and only then attempt to go into the lake. I would take the cooker with you and carry it to the centre of the lake. As long as you are ropes to it you will be fine.

It would be nice if Greenbeanz could go with you, it would be a nice day out for you both. Obviously Greenbeanz would probably need his own cooker, and then for maximum safety you could rope up to each others.

Bilbo are you on a mission to restart the feeblest crusade ever? One where you merely encourage the heathen atheists to partake in stupid pranks and die in the process, or kill themselves with an unholy secular fervour? I used to think all the jokes about you getting a job were sour grapes but now i see how lazy you really are.

Also your plan is fatally flawed as it requires me getting to South Korea locating a cooker, and helping Miles because he is skinny, to carry his to the lake, before going back for mine. Then there is the ropes, something which you, who must surely be an ex boy scout, would know about and I, having not partaken in auto erotic bondage would be clueless on.

Thanks for the lovely sentiment though.










you are forgetting one thing














I bounce

[Youngblood]

We are at the usa/canada border, and snow mobilers sometimes play a game called drunk chicken. It's called that because most sober have enough sense not to do it.

There is a major river that separates us geographically. At night on really cold nights the open water freezes over and creates a temporary ice bridge linking us that can be crossed only by fast moving snowmachines. It unfreezes by the next afternoon. Walking you'd most certainly go in.

The thrill is in the sounds of it cracking below you and breaking up behind you as you go. It's about a mile across and deep, a shipping channel. You can go under at any time and some do and die, but most make it. You can't take the same route as the person before you as it often opens up immediately or now is too weak there.

I've done it. Once. Drunk. It made me instantly sober. Never again. The shitting of pants has never been my strong suit.

[Kev]

We are at the usa/canada border, and snow mobilers sometimes play a game called drunk chicken. It's called that because most sober have enough sense not to do it.

There is a major river that separates us geographically. At night on really cold nights the open water freezes over and creates a temporary ice bridge linking us that can be crossed only by fast moving snowmachines. It unfreezes by the next afternoon. Walking you'd most certainly go in.

The thrill is in the sounds of it cracking below you and breaking up behind you as you go. It's about a mile across and deep, a shipping channel. You can go under at any time and some do and die, but most make it. You can't take the same route as the person before you as it often opens up immediately or now is too weak there.

I've done it. Once. Drunk. It made me instantly sober. Never again. The shitting of pants has never been my strong suit.

So Canadians are truly desperate to get across the border then? Is it to escape the socialism and national mediocrity?

[Youngblood]

We are at the usa/canada border, and snow mobilers sometimes play a game called drunk chicken. It's called that because most sober have enough sense not to do it.

There is a major river that separates us geographically. At night on really cold nights the open water freezes over and creates a temporary ice bridge linking us that can be crossed only by fast moving snowmachines. It unfreezes by the next afternoon. Walking you'd most certainly go in.

The thrill is in the sounds of it cracking below you and breaking up behind you as you go. It's about a mile across and deep, a shipping channel. You can go under at any time and some do and die, but most make it. You can't take the same route as the person before you as it often opens up immediately or now is too weak there.

I've done it. Once. Drunk. It made me instantly sober. Never again. The shitting of pants has never been my strong suit.

So Canadians are truly desperate to get across the border then? Is it to escape the socialism and national mediocrity?

Our beer and liquor stores close too early.

[Nameless]

We are at the usa/canada border, and snow mobilers sometimes play a game called drunk chicken. It's called that because most sober have enough sense not to do it.

There is a major river that separates us geographically. At night on really cold nights the open water freezes over and creates a temporary ice bridge linking us that can be crossed only by fast moving snowmachines. It unfreezes by the next afternoon. Walking you'd most certainly go in.

The thrill is in the sounds of it cracking below you and breaking up behind you as you go. It's about a mile across and deep, a shipping channel. You can go under at any time and some do and die, but most make it. You can't take the same route as the person before you as it often opens up immediately or now is too weak there.

I've done it. Once. Drunk. It made me instantly sober. Never again. The shitting of pants has never been my strong suit.

So Canadians are truly desperate to get across the border then? Is it to escape the socialism and national mediocrity?

Our beer and liquor stores close too early.

You're all living in the wrong province, hence why, 11:00 pm here for normal stores

[Gandalf]

Thanks for the replies chaps.

I've just been out there and as usual it is frozen solid. It is about -4'C out there today and the ice does look thick and set, but I'm not going to go on it. I will just stick to my exercise routine of walking around it.

There is no way I am ever going to be able to carry a cooker down there.

[CutMeMick]

I say you try diving in it 1st like so...

[CFH]

We are at the usa/canada border, and snow mobilers sometimes play a game called drunk chicken. It's called that because most sober have enough sense not to do it.

There is a major river that separates us geographically. At night on really cold nights the open water freezes over and creates a temporary ice bridge linking us that can be crossed only by fast moving snowmachines. It unfreezes by the next afternoon. Walking you'd most certainly go in.

The thrill is in the sounds of it cracking below you and breaking up behind you as you go. It's about a mile across and deep, a shipping channel. You can go under at any time and some do and die, but most make it. You can't take the same route as the person before you as it often opens up immediately or now is too weak there.

I've done it. Once. Drunk. It made me instantly sober. Never again. The shitting of pants has never been my strong suit.

So Canadians are truly desperate to get across the border then? Is it to escape the socialism and national mediocrity?

Our beer and liquor stores close too early.