Frozen Lakes Are Meant For Frigid Mishaps

Here in northwestern Vermont, where I live, large Lake Champlain has pretty much completely frozen over for the first time in seven years.

Ice fishing enthusiasts on Lake Champlain, Vermont
in a photo I took two years ago. Unlike the people
in the video in this post, this trio played it safe
and walked only a thick, solid ice.  

We've had a lot of really warm winters in the past decade, so there's been a lot of open water in recent years.

You'd think a lake in Vermont would freeze over every winter, but not with the mild temperatures we've had.

Until this year. It's been sort of cold, so we're back to walking on water on the lake.

Of course, no ice is completely safe, so there's always the danger of falling through. But the ice on most (but not all!) of Lake Champlain is thick and solid, so you can walk or even drive on it.

The lake has turned into a skating, skiing, ice fishing playground.

But in the spirit of warning people about the dangers of thin ice, pressure cracks and the like, we offer you this video of stupid people going out on ice that is decidedly NOT safe.

For your amusement and an instructional tutorial on what not to do in the winter, I present this very very funny compilation: