I went through when i was 16, was on the way across the river to camp for the weekend, had an axe with me, checked the ice every 50 feet, it was 6 inches thick, unfortunially i stepped into an air pocket that was covered with snow, went 10 ft to the bottem but managed to come back up in the same hole. took me three tries before i could get back up on the ice, fortunally the backroad was only 300 yards away and a car came by and picked me up just as i hit the road. it was 40 below zero at the time. got my rear chewed out for losing the axe, go figure that. [:@]