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Winter Camping and Activities

How to walk on ice

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Member: Tippytop

Last Visit: 05/22/2013 05:29AM
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OBX2Kayak

11/30/2011 07:49PM

Ya gotta love it. Here's an example of your (Wisconsin) tax dollars at work ...
How to walk on ice

I'm still looking for instructions on how to write your name in snow.

"I go because it irons out the wrinkles in my soul" -- Sigurd Olson

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Cedarboy

11/30/2011 08:10PM

Makes you wonder how many folks had to read AND approve of that bit of useful info before it could be posted.

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Savage Voyageur

11/30/2011 10:50PM

We need less Government in our lives. Come on man, Walk like a penguin, are they kidding?

"So many lakes, so little time."

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Wetlander

12/01/2011 07:24AM

Well, it will be easy to see who read the article! Imagine taking a walk down State Street in Madison and everybody is walking like penguins, HA HA. If you see them get into a car... RUN!

Cue the Wisconsin jokes!

The greatest wonder is that we can see these trees and not wonder more.-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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thebotanyguy

12/01/2011 10:57AM

The article may seem to include information that is self-evident, perhaps even a bit silly to those of us who have experienced many winters. But there are a couple of points that need to be made.

1. The link points to an article from the University of Wisconsin Department of Environment, Health & Safety. The mission of that department is to reduce accidents and, in general, promote workplace safety. The article is not out of line with that mission. I work at another midwestern university, and we also have a Department of Environmental Health and Safety. Our graduate assistants are required to watch a number of online safety videos before they are allowed to teach or work in labs. Much of the information may seem self-evident, like fire safety, but some useful information is also presented (e.g. how to dispose of hazardous waste, what to do for a chemical spill). The point is that while some of it may be CYA policy, one cannot underestimate the ignorance (and I do not mean that pejoratively) of new employees.

2. A large university like UW-Madison has a large annual influx of new students and staff from places that do not experience ice and snow. I think that many of them welcome a bit of helpful advice on how to cope.

"Said one of these men, long past seventy years of age: 'I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me. Fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs. Have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I should spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!'"

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awbrown

12/01/2011 12:32PM

This type of stuff seems silly to most of us.........however........If you have ever been involved with having employees, students, or being responsible for other human beings in anything that resembles a work place, you will appreciate how ignorant our legal systems allow human beings to be.

If you are caught sleeping on the job, you can't be disciplined if your employer did not provide you with a documented training session outlining the fact that sleeping on the job is not allowed.

In my past life, I was the facility manager for a hospital complex. Of course, every winter we would have some employee slip and fall on ice on their way into work from the parking lot. One employee did it in the same spot four days in a row. Obviously, the facility did what we could to make the journey hazard free, but it is winter in the Midwest, and things freeze and thaw, and freeze again.

We were told by our legal beagle's that we had to provide "slippery ice" training to all employees, volunteers, students, contractors, etc. in order to CYA.

And that's exactly what we did.

Keep the open side up

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Ho Ho

12/01/2011 02:16PM

With tens of thousands of employees and students, I'm pretty sure UW Madison has a large number of accidents from people slipping on the ice each year. Employees and students are probably insured through the university, so when they are injured, the university pays. Lawsuits for slipping on university property can also cost the U big money. On the other hand, this flyer probably cost essentially nothing to produce. If it helps prevent one accident (maybe the student or professor is from California and never walked on ice before), it will save a lot of taxpayer money. But of course it's always easier to mock things.

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snakecharmer

12/02/2011 06:03AM

cya ~ it's a reality of life in America today.

"Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing it is not fish they are after"
~ Henry David Thoreau

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tonyyarusso

12/02/2011 05:43PM

quote thebotanyguy: "A large university like UW-Madison has a large annual influx of new students and staff from places that do not experience ice and snow. I think that many of them welcome a bit of helpful advice on how to cope."

I don't remember whether it was while they were at UW-Madison or UMN-TC, but my parents tell a story of a guy from I think Cuba who they were trying to explain dressing for winter weather to, and he was brushing it off as silly and even said, quote, "Nobody ever died of cold", and they had to explain to him that yes, actually, winter kills people every year, so he should probably take it seriously.

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Coyote1025

12/03/2011 06:48PM

I work for a small university in the midwest where it is my job to grow pretty green grass on athletic fields in the summer, and ensure that no one falls on the ice in the winter. The stupidity I encounter on a regular basis is astounding. It is not just people that are unfamilar with the midwest winters either. you haven't experianced a winter untill you watch a nice looking women in a skirt and high heels run out of one building to another during an ice storm only to land flat on her butt within two steps of the door.

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gutmon

12/23/2011 06:39AM

A friend of mine went to college in Bemidji. One of his housemates was from Ethiopia and had never experienced snow and cold before. He went shopping (by himself) for winter boots. Came home with football cleats thinking that's what the natives here wore on ice.

"The trouble with the world isn't that people know too little, but that they know so much that just ain't so." Mark Twain

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TuscaroraBorealis

01/12/2012 10:16AM

Here's another safety video.

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awbrown

01/12/2012 11:07AM

We're finally getting our first real wintery snow, and all the local tv and radio stations are busy reminding everyone about making sure that you are prepared for winter......My god, you would think we've never, ever dealt with winter conditions before.....

Then I drove past the local high school this morning. Shorts, flip flops, no jackets..........Ahhhh Hahhhh. I just remembered that adolescent brains are not capable of thinking beyond the next five minutes.

Now I know who the warnings are geared for.

Keep the open side up

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curmudgeonn

Guest Paddler

01/12/2012 09:25PM

quote Ho Ho: "With tens of thousands of employees and students, I'm pretty sure UW Madison has a large number of accidents from people slipping on the ice each year. Employees and students are probably insured through the university, so when they are injured, the university pays. Lawsuits for slipping on university property can also cost the U big money. On the other hand, this flyer probably cost essentially nothing to produce. If it helps prevent one accident (maybe the student or professor is from California and never walked on ice before), it will save a lot of taxpayer money. But of course it's always easier to mock things.
"

A voice of reason, thank you.

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