Does anybody know how quickly or slowly a pressure ridge forms?
We were out in our Ice Castle on Lake of the Woods this past weekend - on top of a solid 19 inches of ice, just off of Morris Point's plowed road.
At about 10pm while watching a movie and getting ready for bed, there was a massive CCRRRAAAACKKK, that literally shook the house. Now we are not newbie's to ice fishing, and usually just accept loud cracks on cold days as a side effect of ice formation, but this was definietly a different sound than your normal every day crack. We thought there must be someone driving a massive truck or something right by us, but when we looked outside, there was nobody around us. Upon further inspection - we found that there was a massive crack in the ice that went right through one of the holes drilled in the house, which was wide enough to put your hand down up to your wrist, and went down further than we could see. After kicking around some snow - the crack went at least 30 feet in both directions from the house.
Just the psychological effect of it made it impossible to go to sleep, so we suited up and lifted and moved the house the hell out of dodge.
The question is, were we ever really in danger? Anybody know what the signs of a forming pressure ridge are? Anybody ever heard of one forming directly underneath an ice house?
