Life Saving Society of Nova Scotia shares tips on staying safe on the ice this winter

Crystal Garrett gets timely tips from the Lifesaving Society about how to stay safe on the ice this winter.

One of the benefits of the recent cold weather in the Maritimes is that some ponds and lakes are frozen, and many people have been able to skate or play hockey outdoors.

Experts say it’s important that safety is top of mind when people venture onto the ice this winter.

Michael Melenchuk, the executive director of the Life Saving Society of Nova Scotia, says the only way to see if ice is thick enough is to measure it.

“And that’s difficult to do unless you have the proper tools, and you want to be very careful because the further you go out on the ice the more risk that you take,” he said during an interview with CTV Morning Live.

The Life Saving Society of Nova Scotia says the recommended minimum ice thickness is:

- 30-38 cm for one vehicle (medium truck or SUV)

- 20-30 cm for one vehicle (car or light truck)

- 12 cm for an ATV or snowmobile, or one large group of people

- 10 cm for ice fishing, skating, walking or cross-country skiing

If ice is seven cm or less, people should stay off it.

“Some communities go out and measure the ice and so the people that measure it usually have this in their back pocket to know how thick it is depending on the activities that people want to do,” Melenchuk said.

“Even though we’ve had great cold weather that has formed some great ice, there’s lots of changes in weather quickly that can change that literally overnight.”

While one might assume ice covered in snow would be colder and therefore thicker and safer, that’s not actually the case.

“Often we see ice that has snow over it and the snow acts as an insulator, it keeps it from hardening and thickening the way we want it to, so if we see slush, if we see snow, that’s a sign that we should probably stay away unless we know how thick that ice is,” said Melenchuk.

If someone does go though the ice, it’s recommended they stay calm and call for help.

“And then the people that come to rescue, you’ve got to stay low. You’ve got to remember that when we’re standing on our feet, we’re also at risk of going into the waters ourselves,” Melenchuk said.

“Getting low and extending a rope to somebody that’s in the water would be the way to pull them out as apposed to going over to them and then we have two people in the water. We want to make sure we don’t go near that hole in the ice where it’s already broken the integrity of the ice.”

Melenchuk says people should check conditions regularly and think about bodies of water the same way they do during the warmer months.

“You don’t know what’s underneath, the same thing happens in Nova Scotia’s frozen lakes is that moving water will eat away at the ice, so we have to be really cautious and really know when we’re going to enjoy that skating or cross-country skiing,” he said.

While cold plunges are very popular right now, Melenchuk said it’s done in a different context.

“A cold plunge is usually in a small tub, but if we do that in a lake we don’t know if we can touch the bottom or if there’s currents underneath. If you do end up submerged in cold water, trying to get to that point of safety, the same that we do in the summer, is calmly trying to find a point of safety, call for help.