The Crazy is strong with this one…man standing on the frozen surface of the Claddagh Canal Basin in Galway this morning.
When I arrived at the Claddagh this morning, there was already a crowd of other photographers there. Usually I have the place to myself, so it was funny to see a bunch of people just like myself clicking away. When one of the lads descended the steps of the Canal Basin and walked out onto the ice, I could hardly bear to look. Ok, that’s not true – the first thing I did was switch the camera to Shutter Priority, set the shutter speed to around 1/400 and waited (if something unfortunate was to happen, it might as well be photographed properly].
He was still there when I left, despite everyone pleading with him to get off the ice. The ice did seem very strong where he was standing – there is a big rock behind him that had been thrown from the road which didn’t crack the ice at all. On the other hand, there was an area of no ice further away, and finding out the hard way that the ice won’t support your wait can be a fatal event.
[UPDATE Sunday January 10th] I drove past the Claddagh Basin this morning and there were two people walking on the ice – one was standing beside the two boats in the foreground. It won’t end well.
I couldn’t resist giving it a go today!
http://short.ie/nji96a
Kevin – I’m guessing that the ice wasn’t too deep ? Was it cracking as you walked across it ?
The lake itself is fairly shallow and the ice was at least a few inches thick. There was no cracking at all as I walked across. I did a few tests first trying to crack it around the edges to make sure it was safe enough.
I definitely wouldn’t have the courage to walk on anything deeper that a few feet. I saw a photo today of people walking out in the middle of Lough Gur, crazy!
What happens, especially at the resevoirs, is that the water is extracted , leaving the ice suspended in mid air, thereby losing part of the support it originally had when the water froze, it would in effect bow as it leave the quay/shore, there is only one description of this kind of self endangerment.