Opening The Biggest Ice Dam I've Ever Seen
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00 And go for a little slide, look at that.
00:07 Look at this, the whole river is frozen.
00:10 Isn't that cool?
00:12 Let's get down there onto the ice.
00:14 I see a false layer right here.
00:17 Yeah.
00:18 That is so fun to walk on.
00:23 False layer.
00:25 Whoa, it's really slippery out here.
00:28 This would be an awesome place for a little bit of ice skating.
00:32 You just got to stay away from the white areas.
00:35 Because that's not going to feel good.
00:39 But take a look at this massive ice dam.
00:42 When we have temperatures this cold, the ends of culverts tend to freeze up.
00:48 And look how awesome this is.
00:50 Got all these icicles right here.
00:55 [ice cracking]
01:00 See that?
01:02 Water is flowing underneath all this ice.
01:05 See it bubbling up right there?
01:08 Yeah, that's all frazzle ice around that.
01:20 Let's see if we can safely get into this culvert by climbing it.
01:25 Should have brought ice cleats.
01:27 Although, the ice dam is not as slippery as it may appear.
01:32 I just got to step on jagged edges.
01:35 Now look in here.
01:37 Wow.
01:41 [thumping]
01:48 Alright, we got to get out something else.
01:52 Ice is a little bit too thick to do just pounding with my hand.
01:58 Whoa, whoa, whoa, slipping.
02:02 Trying to get out of this thing.
02:05 [thumping]
02:17 Wow, that goes down pretty far.
02:20 [thumping]
02:37 It really does. Far.
02:40 [thumping]
02:51 Oh, wow.
02:53 [thumping]
03:08 There we go.
03:10 Woo!
03:11 [thumping]
03:20 [clanking]
03:24 [thumping]
03:32 [clanking]
03:39 [thumping]
03:47 [clanking]
04:06 Alright, everybody.
04:08 This is getting really cool in here.
04:12 Check out this culvert.
04:15 It's got many different layers of ice dam.
04:18 Look at this.
04:19 This ice is more of a slush.
04:23 Yeah, look how slushy that is.
04:27 [splashing]
04:32 You know how this happened?
04:35 It getting cold, I kept making these little dams in here.
04:38 But also, this is called frazzle ice.
04:43 It's basically a snow cone consistency.
04:48 You'll see a big slushy flow that eventually freezes.
04:53 And it causes this, an ice dam.
04:57 Look how I am struggling to stand up completely.
05:03 But yet, it's an eight foot culvert.
05:05 And a dead black widow hanging right there.
05:08 It froze to death.
05:10 [thumping]
05:12 Woo-hoo!
05:15 Whoa!
05:18 I just sunk pretty deep into the frazzle ice.
05:20 Remember, it's an eight foot culvert.
05:22 I actually got my boot wet.
05:28 Whoa, whoa, whoa.
05:32 I'm actually slipping under pretty deep.
05:36 Alright, we're not going to go any further.
05:39 I just want to play with the end of the culvert a bit.
05:43 [splashing]
05:49 [thumping]
05:56 Whoa.
06:00 [thumping]
06:15 [splashing]
06:25 [thumping]
06:35 [splashing]
06:45 [thumping]
06:55 [splashing]
07:05 [thumping]
07:15 [splashing]
07:25 [thumping]
07:35 [splashing]
07:42 Alright guys, this is a pretty awesome culvert that we found.
07:46 I've been here a few times in the past.
07:48 If anybody can recognize this guy, it's pretty cool.
07:53 We'll show you the other side of the culvert towards the end of the video.
07:58 As soon as we turn the vehicle around.
08:01 But it's so awesome.
08:03 We had this big shell of ice.
08:06 But it's only about this thick.
08:08 If you fall through it like I did over there,
08:11 you get two feet of slush material underneath this.
08:15 It's not even flowing water.
08:17 It's just slush like a snow cone.
08:20 That's how it froze.
08:22 As moving water starts to get cold,
08:24 it turns to a bunch of little ice crystals that eventually when it gets cold,
08:28 they just lock all together.
08:31 Now a culvert like this does not need our maintenance.
08:34 What I'm doing here, breaking up the ice at the end,
08:37 in a rare circumstance it can help if it's cold enough
08:42 for the water to get all the way up here.
08:45 Now let me explain.
08:47 It's got to be extremely cold.
08:50 And here's why.
08:52 This culvert is huge.
08:55 This forms small.
08:57 It keeps getting thicker and thicker as it freezes to the bottom
09:00 with ice and water trickling over the top.
09:04 But eventually, as the ice gets so thick,
09:08 it acts as insulation from the cold air.
09:11 And once it starts doing that,
09:13 the warm ground starts to melt the bottom of it like it did here.
09:18 That's why you got flowing underneath rather than over the top continuously.
09:24 Because think about it.
09:26 Only the end is frozen.
09:28 You walk all the way down there to the beginning,
09:31 it's not really frozen much.
09:35 If the bottom of the culvert stayed frozen,
09:37 it could keep going over the top.
09:39 And that happens with small culverts, usually under 18 inches.
09:45 They will freeze completely and flood the other side.
09:49 A culvert like this, you have like a slim to nothing chance
09:54 of it actually causing a backup.
09:56 If there was a sudden winter thaw,
09:59 everything in here would melt and be out of here very quickly.
10:03 What we're doing is just for fun.
10:06 The only time it's beneficial is if the culvert is only a couple of feet.
10:11 There is a chance that could cause a problem.
10:14 And it's also really fun to find a nice dam to break out of the way
10:18 when it's actually still holding water.
10:21 A dam this size, which is probably 3 feet tall,
10:25 it's not going to be holding up much water.
10:29 Now you see this big hollow cavity?
10:31 Yes, at one point this hollow cavity was all water.
10:34 But not anymore.
10:37 Now we're going to have some fun before we leave
10:39 throwing these giant chunks down the frozen waterfall out there.
10:43 Alright guys, the past 3 minutes while I was talking to you,
10:46 I was sitting there.
10:47 And now my butt is all frozen.
10:50 Now I'm walking through all these big iceberg chunks
10:54 and I'm going to pick up some pretty big ones to throw out there.
11:00 Oh, that's awesome.
11:02 It's pretty challenging to stand up right here.
11:05 Very slippery.
11:06 Let's start throwing this stuff off.
11:09 [ice cracking]
11:27 Not as epic as I thought.
11:29 The hollow ice, it's breaking right through,
11:32 meaning it can't slide all the way out.
11:38 Let's get a few really big pieces.
11:47 The camera almost wanted to slide down the ice dam,
11:51 but it's not allowed to.
11:53 No.
11:55 There.
12:07 Almost made it out there.
12:16 Close.
12:17 Let's put the camera in a new position.
12:29 [ice cracking]
12:57 [ice cracking]
13:07 [ice cracking]
13:25 [ice cracking]
13:35 [ice cracking]
13:45 [ice cracking]
14:05 [ice cracking]
14:25 [ice cracking]
14:43 It's getting hot!
14:47 Woo!
14:57 [ice cracking]
15:19 [ice cracking]
15:39 [ice cracking]
15:59 [ice cracking]
16:19 [ice cracking]
16:39 [ice cracking]
16:49 [ice cracking]
16:59 [ice cracking]
17:09 [ice cracking]
17:37 [ice cracking]
17:57 [ice cracking]
18:07 [ice cracking]
18:27 [ice cracking]
18:47 [ice cracking]
19:07 [ice cracking]
19:21 [ice cracking]
19:33 [ice cracking]
19:53 [ice cracking]
20:13 [ice cracking]
20:33 [ice cracking]
20:53 [ice cracking]
21:05 [ice cracking]
21:17 [ice cracking]
21:27 [ice cracking]
21:37 [ice cracking]
21:57 [ice cracking]
22:17 [ice cracking]
22:37 [ice cracking]
22:57 [ice cracking]
23:17 [ice cracking]
23:37 [ice cracking]
23:57 [ice cracking]
24:17 [ice cracking]
24:37 [ice cracking]
24:57 [ice cracking]
25:17 [ice cracking]
25:27 [ice cracking]
25:37 [ice cracking]
25:57 [ice cracking]
26:17 [ice cracking]
26:37 [ice cracking]
26:57 [ice cracking]
27:07 [ice cracking]
27:29 [ice cracking]
27:39 [ice cracking]
27:49 [ice cracking]
27:59 [ice cracking]
28:09 [ice cracking]
28:19 [ice cracking]
28:29 [ice cracking]
28:39 [ice cracking]
28:49 [ice cracking]
28:59 [ice cracking]
29:09 [ice cracking]
29:29 [ice cracking]
29:39 [ice cracking]
29:49 [ice cracking]
30:09 [ice cracking]
30:29 [ice cracking]
30:39 [ice cracking]
30:49 [ice cracking]
30:59 [ice cracking]
31:09 [ice cracking]
31:19 [ice cracking]
31:29 [ice cracking]
31:39 [ice cracking]
31:49 [ice cracking]
32:05 We did get through it after all!
32:09 Now we got water flowing.
32:11 Listen to that nice crackle as it goes over the edge right here.
32:16 Isn't that awesome, the noise that's making?
32:23 Look at this up close.
32:26 [ice cracking]
32:31 Whoa!
32:35 Oh, that's going to be slippery getting it onto the smooth ice.
32:39 Oh, that is so slippery.
32:43 This whole area is caving in right now, that's what that noise is.
32:51 It may only be single digits out, but once you get working, I'm now sweating.
32:59 And unfortunately that meant you guys had to see this embarrassing shirt that I found on the side.
33:07 Pretty embarrassing.
33:09 What's the back say?
33:13 I've got to see what the back says, I can't even look.
33:19 So that was free on the side of the road.
33:21 [no audio]
33:43 [ice cracking]
33:59 [no audio]
34:19 Yeah, I got that embarrassing shirt a little while back.
34:22 This is cool, this layer it's making on top.
34:26 Check out what we did.
34:28 It took quite a while to get this done.
34:31 Oh wow, this ice is turning to frazzle really fast.
34:39 But this is only going to dig itself deeper because, even though it's in single digits, this afternoon will be in the 20s.
34:48 The 20s, yes, is below freezing, but when you've got moving water, especially rivers and stuff which are coming from the groundwater, which is warmer underground, things tend to start melting in the 20s.
35:03 Not at freezing, which is 32 Fahrenheit.
35:09 That is pretty awesome.
35:12 I'm just taking a break. I might come back and hammer away at this a little bit more.
35:19 Oh yeah, let's get this junk out of the way.
35:21 Then we'll have a bigger waterfall.
35:28 Ah yeah, there we go. Nice big waterfall.
35:44 Now you see, the culvert is right down here.
35:49 So underneath all this stuff we couldn't see, yes, this dam was holding up a bit of water.
36:00 Slippery corrugated pipe under here.
36:02 But take a look at the frazzle ice mixed into it.
36:05 That's what I was telling you guys.
36:07 It's flowing slush, that's why it was able to freeze up so fast.
36:12 And within a few days, this will be another big dam again.
36:17 So you guys can see exactly how it's happening. Look at this.
36:22 This is frazzle ice, basically slush. See that?
36:26 Now you guys may try to argue that this is stuff I just broke up, which some of it could be.
36:32 Look at that, just break the little dam again.
36:35 Send a big whoosh down the hill.
36:39 But no, this stuff you're seeing floating is not going to stop coming.
36:45 It's just naturally flowing in this water.
36:48 Yes, most of it is probably from me with the axe.
36:51 Wait for that to clear up.
36:53 But it's going to keep coming, especially when temperatures drop again tonight.
36:58 This was so fun.
37:00 Look at these big sheets of ice.
37:03 Now let's see where it's flowing out of.
37:05 See, it's flowing out of this crevice that's maybe eight inches underneath this whole thing.
37:09 But as you saw up there, it's all mixed with frazzle ice, like you saw me falling into.
37:16 Look at that! Another ice dam is forming.
37:20 They form so fast, don't they?
37:23 Always fun to have fun with an ice dam.
37:36 Look at this thing, it's already a few feet long, building up with stuff.
37:40 Yep, 90% of it is still the stuff that I've been disabling.
37:44 I still hear the ice down there popping like crazy.
37:48 Ice dams grow up so fast, don't they?
37:51 Better hurry, this stuff is starting to freeze together!
38:04 [water splashing]
38:08 Kind of cool how it keeps building up.
38:14 Woo!
38:32 [water splashing]
38:34 Now look at this, nothing's in the channel that I'm disturbing.
38:38 So it should not build back up until night falls.
38:43 Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
38:47 Almost fell down there.
39:00 Alrighty, now just so everyone knows, this is only for fun.
39:04 This culvert would do fine without it.
39:08 But as people know, it's my hobby, unclogging these things, maintaining them.
39:14 And there's not much to do in the winter.
39:17 It's pretty slow, so all my free time, I do stuff like this.
39:23 Now we're going to go over to the other side, and we'll give you a quick look at that before we take off.
39:27 Now that I'm not working anymore, I'm standing still in single digits, I'm starting to freeze up.
39:32 Let me get all my stuff together, and let's get out of here.
39:35 Alright guys, here we are on the other side.
39:39 And right here's a prime example of how an ice dam works.
39:43 You see that big hole? The water was spilling up over the dam.
39:47 But suddenly, the ground got warm enough, so it started going underneath.
39:54 Yeah, that's okay to walk on.
39:56 Look at this. Old granite box culvert going underneath the train tracks.
40:01 Very slippery here. We're on the other side.
40:05 Whoa. So hard to stand up here.
40:09 Look at that little hole.
40:13 It looks like a little pressure relief, like a little volcano of water.
40:21 Or a geyser.
40:24 Check it out. Doesn't that look fantastic?
40:28 That's some beautiful scenery, how that lined up.
40:32 Looks incredibly nice.
40:36 Hope this video was interesting, everybody.
40:47 Thanks for watching.
40:52 Look at that. The myth is true.
40:56 My fingers are slightly damp.
40:58 And you can definitely get them stuck to the metal.
41:02 [water flowing]
41:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]