Ice

In the deep of winter the lakes, ponds and marshes freeze over, and for a few days they're roads. A frozen lake is often the quickest way across a piece of country, and it's where the best fishing of the winter is.

Reading the ice#

Ice starts as a thin grey skin and thickens to solid white as the cold goes on. Tap the ice and Inspect tells you what you're looking at. Grey ice creaks and might not hold you. White ice will. The thickest of it, in the middle of the winter, would carry a loaded sled.

Moving water freezes later than still water and never gets as thick, so a river is never quite safe. The sea doesn't freeze at all. The north freezes a little sooner than the south, and the ice goes out again late in the winter, so stay off it once the Lantern says it's breaking up.

Going through#

Walk out on thin ice and it can give way under you. You scramble back to the bank, but you're soaked to the skin, and for the next 10 min or so the cold gets at you as hard as it can until you get to a fire. A fire dries you out quicker. Nobody drowns, but it's a cold lesson.

Fishing through the ice#

With an axe, tap the ice and choose Chop a hole in the ice. You can fish through the hole without a boat, and drink from it or fill your canteen. A bite takes a little longer than in open water. The hole skins over again after about 1 h.

Boats can't go through ice. One left in the water when it freezes is frozen in until the thaw, so haul yours out in late autumn.

Cutting ice#

On the thickest white ice you can cut blocks with an axe. Each block weighs a good deal, so bring a cart or a sled. In a icehouse (a yard piece, Building 8), packed in sawdust, the ice lasts well into the summer, and while there's ice in it food keeps 20 times as long as it would in your pack. Out of the icehouse a block melts once the frosts are over.

Water from snow#

When there's snow on the ground and a canteen in your pack, any lit fire will melt snow for water, 2 drinks at a time. Handy when the creeks are frozen.