FinnishLapphund
There's no cow on the ice
Sorry pointless post but I vaguely remember the HHO replies last winter after the footage from Iceland (they had a competition on the ice and when too many horses was on a too small surface in one of the starts, the ice broke but all horses was saved), saying that they hoped people would learn to keep themselves off the ices in the future.
To show the difference in ice conditions between UK and f.ex. Sweden, I only wanted to say that today in my morning paper (Göteborgs-posten) there is an article about that this winter's first lake (Härlanda Tjärn), in or around Gothenburg, have reached the 9 centimetres ice thickness level and is considered safe to ice skate on!
In this weather, the ice on the lakes are growing with about 2 cm per night, so hopefully there will soon be more lakes that reaches 9 cm ice thickness.
The article also reminded us about that ice thickness can vary and be thinner on some places and thicker in other places and that we should never go out on ice alone or without ice prods, whistle and lifeline.
<u>I'm not saying that ice's in UK are safe, I'm not even saying that all ices in Sweden are safe</u> but that ice conditions are different in different places and in some places, it is (still) considered natural to go out on the ices during winter.
I also want to mention that in case anybody reading this does witness an accident happening due to fragile ice, though you should of course always wait for the professional life rescuers since we don't always do what we should, if you still do decide to act or sees anybody else trying to do something, remember that you/they should try and spread your/their weight.
Lie down and crawl on the ice, or even better, if there is a house nearby, try and get a ladder and push it out on the ice. Ideally you can then stay on the shore and the one in distress can use the ladder as a lifeline. Otherwise if you crawl out on the ladder, it might help and spread your weight over a bigger area of the ice.
As I said, you should always leave rescuing to the professional rescuers but just in case. Wishing everyone a safe winter.
To show the difference in ice conditions between UK and f.ex. Sweden, I only wanted to say that today in my morning paper (Göteborgs-posten) there is an article about that this winter's first lake (Härlanda Tjärn), in or around Gothenburg, have reached the 9 centimetres ice thickness level and is considered safe to ice skate on!
In this weather, the ice on the lakes are growing with about 2 cm per night, so hopefully there will soon be more lakes that reaches 9 cm ice thickness.
The article also reminded us about that ice thickness can vary and be thinner on some places and thicker in other places and that we should never go out on ice alone or without ice prods, whistle and lifeline.
<u>I'm not saying that ice's in UK are safe, I'm not even saying that all ices in Sweden are safe</u> but that ice conditions are different in different places and in some places, it is (still) considered natural to go out on the ices during winter.
I also want to mention that in case anybody reading this does witness an accident happening due to fragile ice, though you should of course always wait for the professional life rescuers since we don't always do what we should, if you still do decide to act or sees anybody else trying to do something, remember that you/they should try and spread your/their weight.
Lie down and crawl on the ice, or even better, if there is a house nearby, try and get a ladder and push it out on the ice. Ideally you can then stay on the shore and the one in distress can use the ladder as a lifeline. Otherwise if you crawl out on the ladder, it might help and spread your weight over a bigger area of the ice.
As I said, you should always leave rescuing to the professional rescuers but just in case. Wishing everyone a safe winter.