"Walking on Thin Ice"
Many times I have heard the people in my hometown telling the stories about walking on water, to go to their working place. Walking on frozen water, of course. There were times though when that was possible and some did it, the courageous ones of course.
Back in the 80's most of the town's population worked on a naval construction site that we have in here, and this place, is basically on the other side of the lake that the Danube created, and if you could go straight from the town to the site you will have something between 500-1000m to walk on, depending on where you live.
I haven't witnessed such people getting to work on the frozen lake, but I've seen the waters of Danube being thick frozen in two or three winters throughout my childhood. I doubt we will have that this winter thanks to global warming. We did had a frozen lake, last year, and the pictures bellow are the proof of my saying.
The ice was something like 4-5 cm thick and in some places, where waves allowed that, it cracked. On other sides of the lake, like in the first pic, it even shaped around the decks over there and made everything magical around it. I guess the water was very calm at the moment of tacking the pic and the ice was thicker than usual.
It depends a lot on how much sun rays are allowed to pass over the hill when studying ice. In some areas of the town you have more sun during the days, than in others. The landscape though is very beautiful, in my opinion, when the lake freezes, but I have never had the guts to walk on ice. Even when it was 15-20 cm thick.
I did it in Norway, mostly because everyone was doing it, but wouldn't do that in here and never did. I do like tacking pics of it a lot, and I really really hope to have a frozen lake this winter as well, but I don't have high hopes. I felt like sharing these pics though so you guys can have an image of what I'm talking about.
It is worth mentioning that the water only freezes on the artificial lake that we have in here. On the course of the Danube you don't get to see ice because of the currents that the water has and the ships passing every day. Yes, there is some, near the shores, but not on the open waters. That's it for today with my walking on water and I hope you like the pics.
Thanks for attention,
Adrian
If I remember right, 7 cm of clear ice is regarded as the minimum for safely walking on ice. 4 cm can work out, but then one has to know very well what one is doing and carrying security equipment.
I did buy some equipment a couple of years ago as I like skating, and also want to take the kids with me for skating. However, it's rarely possible to go skating here (Oslo, Norway) as the lakes usually are covered with snow. Previous winter I managed to take the kids for skating on the local lake a couple of times. People on the shore was yelling at us as they considered the ice to be unsafe, but I did my research, it was safe enough.
The sea ice is usually less safe, there are more waves on the sea, salty water doesn't make the same kind of ice as fresh water, salty water requires less temperature for freezing. Sea currents also plays a role - in the north, were I was grown up, we never had ice on the sea, but in the Oslo area we have some, especially in shallow bays. There is a basin here protected by quite some islands, almost every year it freezes up making it safe to walk between the islands. They even drive heavy machinery there to make skiing tracks. Some years ago, on a sunny and warm day in March I was out with the boat and was headed for this basin, completely unaware it was still frozen. I was surprised when I came to the ice, tried to break my way a little bit in the "right" direction, but decided to give up when when I saw someone skating on the ice ...
The most extreme I did was probably in the youth, in 1997 in the mountains around Tromsø we crossed a lake by skis in august.
We also have an online database of ice observations as well as accidents.
I walked on ice in Kolbotn, and over there some people have made their own skating tracks by wiping the snow off the ice. I had the courage to do that because I saw them already skating and some others walking on the whole lake...and there was very very cold that time, for weeks, so I was somehow sure that the ice was thick enough. That was in 2016. My only experience of walking on ice. In here I wouldn't. Some did though, but winters back there were different. Moreover I haven't seen the Danube complete frozen with thick ice for many many years. I guess 15 years or more.
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Mă gândesc că e următorul pas firesc al evoluției.
Great pictures! I live in the Canadian Pacific Northwest, so unfortunately not many opportunities to go ice skating on a lake. It's rain rain rain all year round, and only a few days of snow in the lower mainland.
I hate rain...
The ice and your photos are beautiful! It has been a long time since I've gone out on ice, doesn't really happen here and where I grew up it seems things have gotten too warm.
Have you ever skated? I love ice skating, but haven't done that in years either.
No. I don't know how to skate.