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Comment by gcanyon | Hacker News Reader

It always sounds/looks like a trap to me when I hear about/see people driving whole-ass cars over 15cm ~= half a foot of ice. That's just wrong, and I would barely consider walking on ice that thick (thin).

(I'm telling you I'm from southern California without telling you I'm from southern California)

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It’s not safe to drive a car on 6 inches of ice. It’s enough for a snowmobile or single-person ATV. I wouldn’t drive a car onto a frozen lake without 12 inches of ice, 16 inches if it’s a typical half-ton pickup.

I live in MN and have slept overnight on the ice (inside of a heated trailer) before.

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/safety/ice/thickness.html

Obviously depends on the weight / load per area. Here in Stockholm, our skating club starts organizing trips from 5 cm (=2inch), but black ice should hold you from 3.2 or so cm. And you can hear from the sound of the ice approximately which thickness you are on. But this is done with security equipment and in a group, so more general rules apply to anyone without experience and acting on their own. Ice is dangerous, like the outdoors is always dangerous when taken without necessary precaution.

> 5cm

Obviously you know better than I do, but I'm literally uncomfortable here in bed just reading about skating over ice that thin. I'm going to go think about something else now...

So is everyone else in Sweden.

Ask them how big and how many stones they have to skate by that are clearly thrown by people from land who are unsure if the ice is thick enough despite a stone larger having already been thrown.

You can listen to some ASMR here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3O9vNi-dkA

(one of, if not the most experienced ice skater in the world having a blast)

Agreed, I don’t step onto a frozen lake unless there’s 10 cm of clear ice.

I have similar prejudices until I was dragged to a Minnesotan winter activity where everyone drives into the middle of a frozen lake and park in a large circle while a bunch of drivers race their cars in circles in the middle. It was surreal.

A guy showed me a video where they used a chainsaw to cut a giant circle in the ice and then used one of the drive wheels on an ATV to make an ice merry-go-round, it looked pretty fun! The long winters make people here in Minnesota a bit funny in the head lol

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