Awesome Ice

Do you love fancy ice cubes in your cocktails? You could make them in a mold, or you could do it like BAR Go’s Samurai Bartender. Sit back and watch as this talented artist carves chunks of ice into smooth rectangles, cubes, and jewel shapes using nothing but his skill and a razor-sharp knife.

We’re based in Chicago, so we know a thing or two about cold winters. But we’ve never experienced anything like Yakutsk, Siberia, which has recorded a low temperature of -96°F (71°C). Discover With Cenet takes us on a trip to this frigid city, which is home to over 300,000 residents, and contends with some unique challenges due to the cold.

The Beyond the Press channel present a simple but dangerous experiment that you definitely DO NOT want to try to replicate at home. They took an ordinary car tire and wheel, submerged it beneath about 8 inches of frozen lake ice, then overinflated it until it burst. The anticipation of the boom was quite nerve-wracking.

Liam Neeson and Laurence Fishburne star in this action drama about a group of miners who become trapped in a remote and frozen location and the daring rescue effort undertaken by a group of unlikely heroes who must drive their 18 wheelers across the ice to reach survivors. Available on home streaming platforms 6.25.2021.

Equipped with a DJI Mini 2 drone, photographer Vadim Sherbakov takes us on an eye-opening journey to Siberia’s Lake Baikal. The area is known for its beautiful rock formations, which are even more dramatic when covered with snow and ice. The film’s title is the Buryat word for lake, a tribute to the area’s indigenous people.

A few years back, the guys at the Beyond the Press channel created a small carousel on a frozen lake by cutting a circle in the ice. Now, they’re back with a super-sized version of the stunt, in which they helped make a 1000-foot diameter circle out of Finland’s lake Lappajärvi. The ice disc is estimated to weigh about 30,000 tons.

Photographer and artist Jonna Jinton lives in Northern Sweden, where frigid temperatures prevail in the winter. In this lighthearted video, she shows us what it’s like to hand wash laundry in these extreme conditions, using a frozen lake as her washing machine, and trudging through the snow to dry (or freeze) her wet clothes.

Scientists needing to access Antarctica’s Troll Research Station used to have to travel by boat and on foot to access their outpost. These days, airplanes make the trip easier, but there’s nothing easy about the preparation needed to land a jumbo jet on a runway built on the slick blue ice of a glacier. Flightradar24 explains.

Magnet Tricks stepped out into the frigid cold of Finland to capture a series of compelling and unusual images created by freezing soap bubbles atop a magnetic levitation platform. Inspired by the idea, the guys at Magnetic Games then created their own version with a floating bubble inside another bubble.

After seeing an image of a vehicle that had car wash soap stuck to it in freezing temperatures, Garage 54 decided to try and replicate the effect. For their cold-weather experiment, they sprayed their Hummer with foam in the -40º deep freeze outside their shop, turning the SUV into a fuzzy pink nightmare.

Taking a page from the Beyond the Press channel’s sawblade car, RC car fan Fivo Nine modded their Traxxas Xmaxx trophy truck, and outfitted it with 7-1/4″ blades from a circular saw. The RC truck has a tremendous amount of torque for its size, so it quickly digs in and starts cutting into the surface of the frozen lake.

Covering sidewalks and driveways with salt in the wintertime can be a pain. Sure, there are salt spreading machines out there, but how many of them can fly? FliteTest created an over-engineered solution which uses a powerful drone to lift a hopper of salt into the air, then spits it onto the ground below.

This stop-motion animated short film by Soetkin Verstegen is an abstract journey to a place where workers are tasked with retrieving ice and preserving it before it melts. As they move the blocks, the creatures living inside are reanimated. It doesn’t follow a traditional plot but does a great job placing us in its chilly universe.

Nibbling on crushed ice can produce a satisfying and cooling sensation. But we can’t advise doing the same with dry ice. What If explores what kind of terrible things would probably happen to you if you downed a big hunk of the solidified carbon dioxide that likes to maintain a temperature around −109.3 °F.

What sound do you think a chunk of ice would make when dropped into a 300-foot-long borehole in a glacier? If you guessed anything besides “pew pew,” you’d be wrong. Back in 2018, glaciologist Dr. Peter Neff of the University of Rochester Ice Core and Atmospheric Chemistry Lab recorded this clip of the unexpected sound.

We always thought that Ghost Rider preferred motorcycles, but apparently, he also can operate a Zamboni. Watch in amazement as this driver calmly drives his ice smoothing machine across the ice and out of the rink after it somehow caught on fire at Bill Gray’s Regional Iceplex.

Level up your drinks on game night with ice cubes that look like RPG game dice. Created by Spidermind Games, this 2-part silicone ice mold creates perfect ice dice in 7 shapes: 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 1d10, 1d%, 1d12, and of course the mighty 1d20.

Sailing across a lake in a boat made out of ice seems like a bad idea, especially when it’s one of the warmer lakes on the planet. But YouTuber Ryan Trahan did just that, and spent three months building a 4000-pound frozen boat for his melty and futile journey. Perhaps some rowing lessons would have helped.

VICE introduces us to Daniel Schetter, also known as “Surfer Dan,” a local legend in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, who, along with his friends, have made a name for themselves by surfing the frigid winter waves of Lake Superior, and for the amazing ice formations that gather on their exaggerated facial hair.

What’s the most overlooked cocktail ingredient? It’s ice. Ice, baby. The key to a perfectly chilled drink is a big chunk of ice so it doesn’t melt and dilute the good stuff. This heavy-duty Anvil Ice Pick is just what the mixologist ordered. The stainless-steel anvil end scores an ice block, while the sharp bit does the breaking and carving.

We’ve spent some time hooning about on the ice in high-powered sports cars, but these guys in Russia show that it doesn’t take a big budget to enjoy ice driving. With tiny studded tires and some 250cc engines, ripping around on a frozen river in go karts looks like a massive amount of fun.

Shea Gunther shows how a frisbee he tossed onto the ice while skating in Cape Elizabeth, Maine kept rolling and rolling along the slippery surface on a windy day. We’re particularly impressed with his ability to keep up with it and keep it in the frame.

This portable ice maker lets you bring ice cubes right to the table and serve them without a mess or having to touch the cubes with your hands. Each one makes and dispenses a dozen cubes, and is easy to fill and freeze. Grab a two-pack in The Awesomer Shop.