If you need to know whether or not the ice on the lake is safe enough for skating or ice sailing, please see if your municipality or the police have set up the following sign “Danger: Thin Ice”. If so, it is an offense to go on the ice.

We have thus prepared the following tips:

• Never go on the ice alone
• Do not go on to the ice unless it is verified as safe
• If possible, only go on the ice close to a rescue post
• Never leave children from sight, both your own and other people’ children
• Do not go further on the ice than you can still see the shore
• Never call help without a reason
• Always bundle up. If you see an accident, then call for help.

If you fall in a hole and come below the ice, try to stay calm and look at the darkest place, in order to find back to the hole. Contrary to expectations, holes in the ice from below appear as dark, while the ice is light.

Once you have found the hole you fell through, and popped your head above the ice surface, turn your back to the ice edge, plug your elbows backwards and on to the ice, and push off with your legs the same way as when you do the backstroke. Finally, cry for help. That way you can pull yourself up on to the ice.

Once you have come up on the ice again, continue with the “backstroke”, moving away from the hole.

Once you are safely away from the hole, turn around gently on to your belly, and crawl towards the banks without using your hands, knees and elbows. This could cause the ice to break.