Awesome Ice

Here’s a fun winter activity – a tractor that pulls 28 people on innertubes around a frozen lake. This ride can be enjoyed in Heihe, China, a popular destination for tourists from nearby Russia. We see no reason the same can’t be done anywhere you have a tractor, a frozen lake, and a bunch of rope – the more powerful the tractor, the more people you can pull.

We already know it’s possible to drive a car on a frozen lake using sawblades instead of wheels. The guys from CboysTV attempted the same feat with a dirt bike. To pull off the crazy stunt, they fabricated 100-pound steel sawblade wheels for both a dirt bike and an ATV. The blade wheels work shockingly well, though falling off could be deadly.

Why you would want to glide around on skates made out of ice is anyone’s guess, but Works By Design got us to watch his video regardless. He started by testing various mixtures of water and binders for strength. After that, he fabricated custom metal blades and a special silicone ice mold. Our feet are freezing just looking at this thing.

Ryan Cook is a master at carving sculptures with his chainsaw and hand tools. Most of his works are in wood, but he made this amazing sculpture of a toucan out of ice. He carved the intricate bird from a single block of ice and finished the entire bird in just two hours. We can’t decide if the crystal clear beak or the feathers are our favorite part.

Parking your car outside in the wintertime can suck. The Scrape Buddy makes getting ice off your windows easier with its ergonomic design and strong, diamond-polished acrylic edge. Its 5″ wide blade scrapes away ice quickly, and it’s small enough to keep in your glove box. It’s available in clear or blue.

Want that special round ice you find at fancy cocktail bars? The IcyForge is a tabletop ice maker that cranks out perfect, crystal-clear spheres of ice for your drinks. It makes two bubble-free 5.5cm (~2.2″) ice balls every hour and has a capacity of a dozen in its bin. It also has built-in UV sterilization, and is compatible with home water purifiers.

Here’s a fun family project if you live somewhere the temperature stays below freezing for days on end. The ABC Allred Family shows us how easy it is to build your own backyard igloo from blocks of ice and a dash of food coloring for extra flair. You can make the ice bricks in aluminum foil trays and then cement them together with a mixture of snow and cold water.

This awe-inspiring video footage shot on Lake Louise in Banff National Park shows a literally cool natural phenomenon. This stuff is called “candle ice,” and it forms when the sun warms ice enough that it starts to break down due to air or liquid water trapped between ice crystals. As the ice begins to melt, it breaks easily into candle-shaped columns.

If you’re going to live somewhere that’s already cold enough to keep ice frozen, we’re not sure you really need a freezer. But that didn’t stop Zhang Zhilei from making one outside of his home in Mongolia. Rather than going with a store-bought electric freezer, he froze water in baking sheets, then glued the pieces together with water to form a literal ice box.

How would you like to be able to ice skate anywhere you go? Inspired by Frozone from The Incredibles, JLaservideo created a rig that lets him do just that. His water and liquid nitrogen-powered backpack is literally the coolest thing we’ve seen this week. But can he freeze a swimming pool and walk across it?

Photographer Christopher Dormoy’s short film offers a fascinating look at how ice melts as it gradually warms up, both symbolizing the start of spring and as a commentary on climate change. He shot the macro time-lapse footage using a Nikon Z6 camera, a Laowa 24mm probe lens, and a Nikkor 105mm macro lens.

It’s not nearly as large as their record-setting ice carousel, but this spinning race track from the Beyond the Press channel looks like a fun wintertime activity. We did get a little dizzy watching the video at times, though. In case you’re interested, those three-wheeled, all-season scooters come from Skick.

While the guys from Overdrive didn’t go as fast as these drivers did on the ice, it still looks like they had a blast learning how to control go-karts on a frozen lake in Finland. Despite having studded tires, and a modest amount of power, making karts do what you want them to on the ice takes a good bit of practice.

A modern milkshake mixer is a pretty uninteresting appliance. Apparently, it was much more entertaining to watch milkshakes being made back in the 1890s. Rescue & Restore shows us why with this video of a vintage, hand-cranked milkshake machine that shakes milk and ice like an earthquake.

Looking for something fun to do with the kids when it’s below-freezing outside? Inland Iglu helps you build a backyard winter fort. Just set up the frame, connect a garden hose, and its mesh will catch mist from the water and freeze into a sturdy ice shell. They also make smaller versions in rocket, castle, and pirate ship shapes.

Photographers Martin Heck and Morten Rustad captured this incredible ultra high-definition, time-lapse footage of the blue-green ice and water of Norway’s fjords. If you’re looking for something to transport your thoughts from home today, this is it. Best watched in full-screen.

Filmmaker Thomas Blanchard created this captivating music video for the electronic track Bellatrix by Sébastien Guérive. He created the monochrome imagery by saturating hot water with chemicals that spontaneously crystallize when cooled. Go full screen, dim the lights, and crank up your headphones to 11 for this one.

Timelab.pro captured this incredible footage of 50 Years of Victory and Yamal, two Russian icebreaker vessels as they headed out across the Arctic Ocean. These nuclear-powered ships use their 75,000 horsepower engines to cut through ice up to 9.2 feet thick to reach the northernmost waters of the Russian Federation.

Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen kicked off 2022 with an icy start. His first F1 drive of the year wasn’t on a regular track but on a snowy GP Ice Race circuit in a race car equipped with special studded tires and chased down speedway racer Franky Zorn on his motorcycle.

Titas Zanders of RRW Studios created this modern and minimal deck of cards with a chilly winter theme. Limited to just 100 decks, each card features crisp shapes illustrated in gradients of ice blue, white, and grey. Printed on crushed linen with a smooth Air-Cushion finish by Cartamundi.

We’re fascinated by this short video of a star-shaped bubble wand as the frigid air hits it and causes ice crystals to form. We love how the crystals swirl to life across the filmy surface and the shapes they create in the warm orange glow of sunset.

Celebrate your love of RPGs and fine spirits with these awesome D20 whiskey stones. They help keep spirits chilled without diluting and look great doing it. Each one is made from volcanic obsidian laser-etched with an Ice Dragon or Lich King design. They measure appx. 1.57″ across x 1.9″ tall and are food safe.

We’ve seen how circular saw blades can be used to provide traction on ice – at least until they cut all the way through. The Q modified one of those wheeled “hoverboards” to ride on saw blades. He added metal plates to each of the blades’ teeth so it doesn’t dig in as much, but we still wouldn’t want to fall onto them.