How many pickup trucks can sit on ice that is 12" thick?

[Deja Q]

Up vacationing north of Bedmidji MN, and noticed last night an odd sight:

In a ~50' diameter in the middle of the lake:

6 icehouses of variable sizes and weight.

5 pickup trucks. (3 of which were about 2' apart each, the other two about 20 feet away I'd guess!)

1 four door sedan about 6 feel from the aforementioned three trucks.

It's 37 degrees out and there's standing water on the ice (so maybe the ice was 10 or 11" thick).

All of these were out for HOURS, into the evening...

The next morning I went out and noticed a lot of ice holes and numerous big cracks in the ice.

Was it a miracle that the ice had held?

[HereSince1628]

1. I taught at Bemidji State in the late 90's...the lake is a parking lot

for the students. I didn't see anyone go through but I asked the same question...when you look at a 20-30 pickups in a row on a foot and a half of ice it sort of begs that question.

I should add that Bemidiji was the first place that I ever saw "recovery" as part of towing companies' ads. Apparently going through the ice, or into the mud of the local swamps wasn't uncommon.

Good curling club in Bemidji

[Don_G]

2. I Don't Know

I guess I don't want to find out and I'd like to get to know the other two 20' PU Truck owners a little better before I wanted to do that again.

Maybe they have a few other tricks up their sleeve that the others didn't think about....

[NicoleM]

3. Last year

(I think it was last year anyway) a whole lot of ice houses and pickups wound up under water because people left them out there too long after it started to thaw.

[izzie]

4. Try asking people from Maine as,,,,,,,

They have been parking on lakes for years and going through.