Don't you actually have to get on the ice to take a core sample? By then it may be to late.

I grew up on a small river in the suburbs of Boston. Every winter the river froze over, as did Brown’s Pond. When conditions were right we could skate into town, a few miles up stream. I would lace up in the back yard and go, off into the wild frozen swamplands.

We kept sections of Brown’s Pond clear of snow most winters for hockey games. Each neighborhood had it’s own pond. We hosted and traveled for games. It was great fun.

Some seasons the river would rise and flood around the trees, then freeze and recede. The resulting confusion of ice required constant focus.

One of my earliest memories is learning to skate with my dad. I had double-bladed hand-me-downs from my older brother. It was a family event, lots of families outdoors in the winter having fun. I might have been 3 or 4 years old.

There were always the annual parental warnings when the ice started to form in the fall. We all knew about the kid who once lived next door, he drowned in the river long before our times. Even with the warnings somebody fell in nearly every year. I went in as deep as my waist. Complete submergence was rare, and we all knew it was serious. Yet I remember drinking from open water by lying down and crawling to the icy edge.

The early season ice evaluation ritual was pretty standard:

Sneak out to Brown’s Pond
Grab a grapefruit-sized rock
Heave it as high as you could
Watch and listen to the impact as the rock crashed down

After determining the quality of the ice one of two things would happen. If the ice seemed safe, a bold, older kid would take the first steps of the season. If the ice looked questionable then one of the younger kids would get chastised until he gave in and tiptoed out.

I still use the rock-tossing bit when I venture onto the cold waters.

My family lives on a lake in New Hampshire and this has been my first Fall/Winter here watching the process of the lake freezing. I don't understand how a lake could freeze from the middle out like some people have said. The middle of the lake here froze a good week after the edges and channels froze. Just because it is so much more exposed to the wind. I went out on the ice (I was tethered to our dock and it was only 2 or 3 feet deep) a few days after our area froze (when it was still open water maybe 50 feet away) and took some pictures. Didn't use an auger, but the ice looked maybe 1-2 inches thick and made no creaking sounds or anything.

This was the first year in a while where we had extended cold weather between snowfalls so the whole lake froze before it got covered in snow. We had a blast out ice skating after a week plus of 0 F or lower at night and highs ~10F. Took an auger and drilled a dozen holes, didn't make it through on any of them (10").

I think the town does official measurements because I there is a very specific day that the snowmobiles come out, and a specific day all the ice fishing houses come out. It goes from quite and peaceful to mayhem overnight with the snowmobiles.

dirth wrote:I think the town does official measurements because I there is a very specific day that the snowmobiles come out, and a specific day all the ice fishing houses come out. It goes from quite and peaceful to mayhem overnight with the snowmobiles.

Sounds like Winnepasaukee.

Clydascope wrote:Make sure you have the right gear.

I was in June Lake yesterday, and had one of the coolest experiences. We had climbed ice there the previous day and seen ice skaters out on June Lake, so I had to go take a closer look for myself, and drove down to the beach.

Who should pull up but Doug Nidever ! He invited me to join the locals and pulled a pair of skates, a hockey stick and (among other things) an ice screw out of the back of his truck.

22cm screw


Ice depth about 7 inches


The ice was so clear in places you could see the bottom. The ice sounds were eerie, a little like whale song.



I had never actually seen anyone skating on a frozen lake before, so to me this was all new, and an amazing experience.

Kind of funny what people do around lunchtime .. some folks jog, others go to the gym, and those lucky eastside bastards go ice skating and x/c skiing !

I can't comment on the wonderful locations you guys and girls live and walk in re ice walking.

What I can say is that if any of you ever come to the UK during one of our colder snaps in winter, the general rule is do not go walking on frozen lakes etc.

We just don't get temperatures low enough and for long enough to get safe conditions.

People do sometimes go out on such ice here and usually make the main evening TV news. Because they fell through and got killed.

I saw a girl go in on Spy pond (outside Boston) one year.

She was quite clever about getting out, I thought.

She reached into her pants pocket and pulled out her car keys. Then she stabbed the ice fiercly with the longest key, about an arms length out in front of her body. She then pulled herself out with this.

tigerlilly wrote:I saw a girl go in on Spy pond (outside Boston) one year.

She was quite clever about getting out, I thought.

She reached into her pants pocket and pulled out her car keys. Then she stabbed the ice fiercly with the longest key, about an arms length out in front of her body. She then pulled herself out with this.

Great thinking. And just one of many reasons to never buy a Mercedes. This is the key:

in december the river by my parents' house froze and my little sister went to check out the ice. she threw large rocks out on it to test it, and she said the small bubbles in the ice revealed it to be about 6" thick. so she proceeded to play on it. you know, like you do.

but then a woman who was up walking her (foo foo) dog came and started yelling at her to get off. my sister told her it was fine, and that she had tested it, but the woman wouldn't give it up. my sister got annoyed and eventually just told the lady to fuck off and mind her own business (maybe not in SO many words.)

but then the lady called the police to get her off. they didn't say she had to but she did anyway because the whole thing just wasn't so fun anymore.


i thought it was pretty annoying when she told me the story. the woman clearly just didn't understand the situation and got scared, and then decided that her own fear and misunderstanding was more important than my sister's evaluation of HER OWN situation.

i'll bet the woman was in 100x more danger when she got back into her SUV and proceeded to tail gate people back to her suburb while yacking on her cell phone...