Ice Anchors

[riverrat56]

I was thinking today about trying to make my own ice anchors, i would take a peice of flat metal 12" long and then drill a hole through it and tie the rope through that hole and then lower it sideways into the hole until it was all the way under the ice then turn it sideways and it will hold. What do you guys think will it work or isnt it worth the hassel? I figured it could save some money instead of buying the commercial ones.

RR56

[P Gottshall]

Great idea. Several similar were posted last year. Here's a sketch I made of the idea.

Paul

[image][/image]

[beer batter]

Hey Riverrat,

Do a search on "ice anchors" and you'll see a few recent threads on the topic over the past couple weeks. My thoughts on your idea is that yes it will hold, but when you go to pull it out you will have to shove your arm into the hole to get it out or worse yet you may have to reopen the hole if it froze over again. I've done it in the past and it sucks.

Best one I've seen is where you make a bar of steel slightly longer than the width of the hole. Attach an eye bolt just off center and wedge it into a partially drilled hole with the side containing the eyebolt towards the bottom of the hole. I believe Phred52 posted a good description of this type and someone else posted a picture of something similar. Good Luck.

[Iceseeker]

I actually prefer to use wood so that if something happens and it freezes in or breaks off you have an item that will decompose later. I just use my ice scoop to push it down the hole.

Iceseeker

[Eric Wettschreck]

Riverrat, I've done the exact thing you are talking about and it works great for me.

I used some re-bar that was laying around, welded a nut to it (off center, I'll explain why later) looped some rope through it and voila, ice anchor. They work great.

I have the nut off center so when it's time to pack up ya bust the ice off of the rope, give it some slack and maybe a couple of jigs and it will flop over to one side so you can pull it out. Being off center doesn't really hurt anything when setting up either. Drop it down the hole, put and keep some tension on it and it will grab.