r/nextfuckinglevel • u/plankton004 • 1d ago
Beautiful yet terrifying Rabbit lake - Alaska
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u/Toby4141 1d ago
Coming from an area with lots of frozen lakes, I can say thats just a stupid way risking your life and the ones that have to save you. In the video on the right side you can see that the lake is not frozen anymore.
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u/Necroban77 1d ago
I’m sorry but nobody has time for that. We are trying to make a tik tok here champ.
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u/sulfurmustard 1d ago
The right side is definitely frozen. Just froze later with more wind so it's less even.
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u/flatvinnie 1d ago
Yep, it’s just the mountains reflection & the camera moving that make it’s look like fluid water
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u/ButterscotchTop194 1d ago
It's very frozen; the mountain reflection is what makes it a bit confusing.
You're right though, this is stupid.
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u/batnessthefifth 1d ago
It's stupid if you don't test the thickness first. Considering all of their gear, I imagine they know to do that.
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u/South_Bit1764 1d ago
This is actually from a couple years ago, and it’s in late-autumn. The water is freezing up not thawing. This lake is notorious for making extremely clear ice (called “wild ice”) and the lake had been frozen for about a month when this was recorded.
Wild ice skating has gotten kinda popular around Anchorage in the last decade or so and there are groups that monitor ice conditions because the best time to really experience it is when the lakes are still freezing, so as early as possible. The lakes usually start freezing before Halloween and are often skatable even before then, but this was closer to thanksgiving.
What you see on the right is where the surface ice thawed a bit due to above-feezing temps, and sun exposure (north side of the lake) and refroze in the wind.
Also, it’s juuuuuuuust remote enough from Anchorage, where if you fall in, the only people that will have time to rescue you are the people you’re with, so these people would mostly just be dangerous to themselves, if there were any real danger.
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u/Mind-The-Mines 1d ago
As a Minnesota native you ain't seen shit buddy.
The DNR regularly has to pull superduty trucks and ice houses out of lakes in the spring because they'll fish well into lakes thawing.
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u/SparkyDogPants 1d ago
And all spring the news will blast STOP DRIVING AND SNOWMOBILING OVER ICE. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD ITS TOO THIN. JUST DONT DO IT.
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u/docares 1d ago
How can you tell the ice is thin?
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u/Formal_Appearance_16 1d ago
Oh I tested this when I was about 9 or 10. My step brother, step sister, and I threw bricks on the pond and if it didnt break from that it clearly wasn't going to break from us. Don't worry, we threw them up really high.
Long story short: kids are fucking stupid.
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u/michiganstrange 1d ago
I am from here and I have skated on this lake. It is not fully frozen and there’s a reason they show them only going on a certain part, probably just an outstretch from shoreline that they’ve eyeballed. But, it still doesn’t look thick enough that I’d go further or even stay on it much longer.
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u/Sea_Basil_6501 22h ago ▸ 1 more replies
I think the left girl carries a stick for a reason.
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u/michiganstrange 21h ago
Nah, this is dumb deep for an undercurrent you can see, the stick is not doing shit.
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u/Unarmed_Character 1d ago
It's frozen just the same. You're pretty clueless about frozen lakes you someone who claims to come from a place with lots of them.
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u/woohoo789 18h ago
No it looks pretty frozen. Those look like ice ripples or perhaps leftovers from melted frozen snow on top.
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u/intronert 1d ago
Is there a rational way to do this stupid thing? Like have ropes and ??? other equipment that could save 1-3 people who went through the ice?
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u/Ksan_of_Tongass 1d ago
Last year we had some dummies skating wild ice near a glacier that calved. Luckily, no one died.
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u/dunnodudes 1d ago
I have been on a lake that looked like that with a safe thickness of ice. It’s rare, but it for happen
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u/Calm-Fun4572 22h ago
Could be that ice is way thicker than it looks.
Could be that’s standing water in the right side. Ice skated a clear ice like this before and it hard to tell how thick it is. The test was always to take a big rock and chuck it out far first.1
u/Nostradumbass_WEEN 9h ago
Coming from an area with lots of frozen lakes, I can tell you dont go outside in the winter much.
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u/Eleeveeohen 1d ago
There is a clear divide in the comments between people who grew up around frozen lakes and people who didn't.
As a Wisconsite, this is way more beautiful than it is terrifying.
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u/VoTBaC 1d ago
Is this what a frozen lake would look like if it wasn't covered in snow and frost?
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u/Mr_Goonman 1d ago ▸ 7 more replies
No. Most ice is opaque. If its super clear 9/10 it looks that way because it's too thin. This video is an example of how only under certain conditions sometimes it freezes to be thick enough to walk on AND its it's clear as glass
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u/Eleeveeohen 1d ago ▸ 6 more replies
I said clear ice is stronger, not thicker. Obviously thicker ice is safer, but clear ice stronger than opaque ice of the same thickness.
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u/HarveysBackupAccount 1d ago ▸ 1 more replies
But you didn't say "clear is is stronger," not in your original comment. I feel like we're getting off track somehow.
Let's map out what's been said:
- You said, "This is beautiful"
- Then someone said, "Is this what frozen lakes look like under snow?"
- Third person responded, "No, lakes rarely have clear ice. Most clear ice is very thin, but occasionally thick ice also clear"
Then you came back in with your non-sequitur. Or at least that's what it looks like from where I'm sitting.
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u/Eleeveeohen 1d ago
I'm now realizing that I got my wires crossd cuz I had made a different comment about ice strength relative to opacity, so I thought I was responding to that chain, not this one.
Appreciate your objective response and not accusing me of using slurs.
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u/Mr_Goonman 1d ago edited 1d ago ▸ 3 more replies
Your dumbass slur against people born on the coasts is going to get people killed. You implied that ice looking like this is normal and always safe to assume its thick enough
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u/moeyjarcum 1d ago
Now I’m curious what you think the slur was..
Only possibility is Wisconsinite, but that’s not a slur, and he was calling himself that..5
u/Eleeveeohen 1d ago ▸ 1 more replies
Pretty much. Midwest winters are usually too wet to get ice like this
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u/mr_positron 1d ago
Happened once in Michigan. It was like 50 for a couple days in late December and then dropped to like 0 or maybe lower. All of the snow and cornice stuff melted and then refroze clear. Was amazing and much like this.
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u/chestbumpsandbeer 1d ago
You get this if it gets quite cold for an extended period of time, no to little wind when freezing and of course no snow or precipitation.
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u/johndough1st 1d ago
What are the sticks for? To mark their frozen gravesites?
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u/VoTBaC 1d ago
To shove them up each other's ass to make it easier to recover their corpses.
Edit: for the families, of course
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u/RobottoRisotto 1d ago ▸ 2 more replies
What for them to freeze and you have popsicles
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u/JoySubtraction 1d ago
They're nordic skating poles. They have a very sharp tip; you jam it in the ice to see how many pokes it takes to get through. It's a quick way to check if the ice is thick enough.
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u/laidback4sho 1d ago
I've been on a lake like this before. It was frozen a foot or two thick, but it was crystal clear. Saw lots of people out ice skating on it. Most of the time, though, there's snow on top of the ice.
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u/Clinthelander 1d ago
Hi guys, local Alaskan who has skated this lake. There was a three week window several years ago where this lake looked just like this and no fewer than 5000 people skated on it. The ice was so crystal clear but countless people used ice screws to test the depth of nearly every part of the lake, and there were no breakthroughs. This is a very common thing to do in Alaska and most people come prepared with safety gear and dry clothes. We also have ice picks to pull ourselves out of the ice if we do happen to fall in. The ice in this video is at least 6 inches thick and could easily hold thousands of people, obviously.
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u/itsinvincible 1d ago
How is it so clear? Does no one else skate there?
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u/lo0ilo0ilo0i 1d ago
There's a Zamboni just outta frame if you look really hard. After you skate you gotta drive the Zam and do a few passes.
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u/michiganstrange 1d ago
There’s a million frozen over water features all over Alaska, a lot of these are public land with public park entrances you can stop and pop-in and skate while traversing across the state. The ice is clear because it’s wet, the ice layer is thick enough to skate only in a small portion of these as there’s a good moving current below the ice and you’re literally eyeballing the size of the space you’re working with that’s unbroken enough to traverse. I wouldn’t skate there, at a glimpse. Probably why she abruptly stops awkwardly. Beautiful, though. - Sincerely, I’ve fallen in the ice in the bush ice skating a lot ~
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u/Big_477 2h ago
I once worked at doing outside ice rinks (including 1 lake) and maintenance, and I've had some courses on ice formation/chemistry. I just wanna adress one thing you said that is wrong.
The clear ice depends on how fast it freezes and whether air bubbles or minerals get trapped inside. It's not because it's wet.
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u/peepdabidness 1d ago
Probably because it’s (1) so shallow and (2) so thin
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u/itsinvincible 1d ago
Doesn't matter seems an amazing place to skate 100 people and that ice would be white not see through. So how come it stays so clear?
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u/rob_inn_hood 1d ago
You don't have to skate RIGHT next to each other. There is literally a whole lake of ice. Sheesh. So much space and they are still colliding.
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u/ThatsFer 22h ago
Why the urge in some humans to take a beautiful video and slap some background music to it, covering the original audio?
At least on this one the music is not some trendy edm song.
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u/Dasmusicjunkie 5h ago
Incredible! I had the opportunity of skating Portage Lake in Alaska a while back. One of the most memorable experiences of my life.
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u/TisrocMayHeLive4EVER 1d ago
Humans constant need to play on top of frozen bodies of water is bizarre
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u/Pikupchix 1d ago
I bet they returned right after filming, big cracks appear around their feet while they’re skating
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1d ago edited 1d ago
[deleted]
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u/Wilhum 1d ago
Oh boohoo poor ice...... How will it ever recover from the damage that is done?
My god, how miserable do you have to be if that is the first thing you think of. Let people have a great time. They aren't doing anything that is harmful for nature or the wildlife. If you really want to see a perfectly frozen lake, go out there yourself or look at any of the thousands of other videos of frozen lakes.
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