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.
.
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.
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?”
"...frozen pond..."
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.
Ask George and Peter Bailey!
There is actually a lot of science to ice. To get an Alaska Professional Engineers License, one needs to pass a cold region special test. One of the topics is ice river/lake road requirements. Part of the test is determining the minimum ice thickness for a certain vehicle axial weight and speed.
Oh good God again tonite.
We are such cowards. Our whole society simultaneously complains about kids and people not getting out enough and having real exercise, while simultaneously shutting down all the natural play opportunities as “too risky”. Hence, no one sets up ice-skating venues outdoors on bodies of water anymore. And etc. with all kinds of great play options. Too unsafe!
About 16 years old...Friend and I walked out onto a frozen pond...I went first...Got out a ways and turned around and was talking to my friend...
I was interrupted by a weird cracking sound... I looked down and just exactly like on the cartoons, the ice under me turned into a spider web...I looked at my friend as he was then watching the ice...With a look of ‘this can’t be happening’ on his face we both watched as the cracked ice quickly spread to where he was standing, about 10 feet away...
Sploosh!!!
I beat him to shore...He say’s I swam over the top of him...I don’t know...It was surely a cold, cold, stiff walk home...
As long as you don’t fall through.
When I grew up, near Chicago, people would make a frame in the yard from 2x4’s and fill it with water for kids to skate on.
That was pretty safe.
Rule of thumb
1 inch = No Way
2 inches = 1 may
3 inches = small groups
4 inches = OK
Problem is voids or springs which may create weak spots
The ice was stronger when we were kids. People fall through all the time now.
Here is a series of instructional videos on the subject:
Idiots writing articles like this one make me embarrassed that they are human and presumably American.