Walking On Ice: How Thick Is Safe?

How thick does ice have to be before it’s safe to walk or drive on? Every year we hear about tragedies where people fall through the ice and drown, so let’s take a look at ice and ice thickness so we are all on the same page.

The “Sweet Six” Rule For Ice

I was raised an “island kid”, living on various south pacific and “ring of fire” tropical islands until my teen years, so the idea of walking around on ice was completely foreign to me.

Now I’d been to Sapporo Snow Festival at Odari Park in Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido, Japan several times. The snow festival is one of the “not to be missed” things if you live in the orient, and is 100 percent bucket-list worthy. I had seen ice and snow.

It wasn’t until we moved back to the midwest that I REALLY began to learn ice & snow though.

The Pond

We lived a mile outside of town (a town of 4,000 residents) and across the road and over by Panther Creek our neighbors had a pond that had approximately an acre surface area. Here is, in fact, that pond via satellite:

One of my friends parents owned the pond, and all the kids from the area would go over to it in the winter and ice skate / play hockey on it. 

The one firm rule we had was that we had to wait until his father went out and “clear” it. He used what he called the Sweet Six Rule, meaning that it was safe to be on and not worry about if the ice was six inches thick or more.

Since we never had any problems, I have always adopted this rule for myself. It turns out, however, after doing some research it seems like Sweet Six, while safe, is very conservative.

Government Ice Thickness recommendations

According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources the minimum safe depth of ice to walk on (for a human) is four inches.

Here are the MDNR’s guidelines:

UNDER 4″ – STAY OFF
4″ – Ice fishing or other activities on foot
5″ – 7″ – Snowmobile or ATV
8″ – 12″ – Car or small pickup
12″ – 15″ – Medium truck

As they put it in their ice guidelines, “Temperature, snow cover, currents, springs and rough fish all affect the relative safety of ice. Ice is seldom the same thickness over a single body of water; it can be two feet thick in one place and one inch thick a few yards away. Check the ice at least every 150 feet.”

How do I measure Ice Thickness?

Here’s how I learned to do it from our neighbor with the pond mentioned above, Mr. Andrews.

First, you need something to cut a hole in the ice. Being an ice fisherman, Mr. Andrews had several ice augers. Ice augers are basically very large drill bits designed to quickly and efficiently drill holes in ice.

Mr Andrew’s method of clearing the pond for us to play on (and him to fish) is as follows:

1. Drill a hole about reaching out from the shore with an ice auger. Note; Anything that will cut through ice will work, hatchet, chainsaw, battery powered drill with big wood bit, etc.
2. Before stepping onto the ice, he tied a rope around where the dock was anchored (they pulled the dock in the winter, it was a floating dock) and then tied that around his waist so he could pull himself out if needed.
3. Check ice depth with by feeling down with a tape measure. Mr. Andrews had a modified tape measure that had a much longer “lip” on it than normal so he could “wrap” the lip under the ice to be sure he was at the bottom of the hole.
4. If the ice there was 6 inches or more, he would then walk out onto it about 5 feet and dig a second hole. 
5. If the ice at the second hole were over 6 inches (and about the same width) he would then walk around drilling three more test holes. If they were all consistently deep, it was “game on” for us. 

Overkill?

Perhaps.

Probably.

Then again, using Mr. Andrew’s method is stone-cold effective and very safe, and when it comes to kids playing on ice, who really wants to take the risk?

Tragedies Happen

So what compelled me to write this article today? Unfortunate news here in my home state, where two boys, aged 7 and 8 years old, fell through the ice on a pond and were drown this last weekend.

From the AP report: “Authorities say two boys have died after plunging through a frozen pond near their home in eastern Missouri.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol says the 7- and 8-year-old boys were found Sunday in the private pond in Franklin County.

The search began after the boys didn’t return from a bike ride. The patrol says a family member found one of them floating in the pond.

A diver then located the second child.

They were pronounced dead several hours later.”

Safety Is Never A Vice

Understanding ice safety is important for everybody who lives in an area where things freeze over, and it’s important information for people who may bug out into areas with frozen ponds and lakes.

Falling into freezing water is a very, very quick way to die, so it’s best to know what you are doing and be prepared ahead of time when traveling onto frozen water.