Digs a hole in the ice with a pointed stick
From BearWiki
Claim: The notion that Bear digs through the lake ice he's standing on with nothing more than a pointed stick is silly.
This simply does not work. Lake ice that can hold your weight is 2" or more thick inches[1], and to be safe, should be at least 3" thick[2]. It's enough of a pain to chip through with an axe. What bear is digging through is snow over "miraculously" unfrozen water.
Bear claims the ice thickness is 3-4 inches:
"I'm definitely on a frozen lake, and you can just tell that with great slashes, and you can see it's just a few digs down, and I'm into water, and you can see,, and probably the ice is only three or four inches thick, and I've got to be really careful on this stuff. But, with a little bit of effort, I should be able to dig a decent enough hole here and get through to the slush, and then through the few inches of ice . . ."
Update: The edited version of the episode confirms that at least the catching of the trout was staged.
[edit] Analysis
Support: Curiously enough, the hole that Bear digs by using long, straight strokes and a bit of jabbing is round and the size of a large auger bit when they show him "stirring" the already-made slush. ;)
Oppose:He clearly states in the show that the 2" ice is non-existant. He even demonstrated it with that stick. Also, if you watch the show, he uses a twisting motion to get the hole he fishes from. It completely makes sense.
- Support: Bear does not say that the ice is non-existant. He states quite clearly that the ice is 3-4 inches thick. Transcript added.
- Support: A twisting motion does not make a stick "tunnel through ice". When they show him twisting, the hole already exists. Digging through ice without an auger is backbreaking labor, and a stick simply does not cut it (literally and figuratively). If you think that you can support your claim, reference it.
- Support: If the 2" ice was nonexistent, Bear would be at the bottom of a lake right now. If you think a full grown adult can stand on notably less than 2" of ice, you're more than welcome to provide a reference or a pic of you pulling it off. Of course, to make it like the ep, stand on just a thin layer of floating slush. The concept is so silly it's laughable.
Support: "Get through to the slush" doesn't even make any sense. There's not some magical layer of slush that sits atop frozen lake ice.
Support: No frozen slush layer, but on the outer edge of the frozen lake (where Bear stood and where the majority of high-altitude trout hunt for food) slush often forms and holes can often be made much easier because of a less thick density. Also, it is entirely plausible that the crew assisted in the drilling of the hole, but this should not be confused with the fact that they did not hand him the fish that he caught.
Support: I've been going ice fishing regularly for nearly 3 decades now and 4 inches of ice is enough to hold a snowmobile or small ATV. There's NO way you'd get through it with a stick. Also, it should be noted that auger drilled holes do get small layers of ice on them rather quickly if not used. The crew would simply have to wait 30 minutes or so, throw some snow on top of the very thin ice that formed over the aguer hole and then film Bear poking through it with his stick.
Support: I know this isn't a Survivorman wiki or anything. But an episode of Survivorman had Les trying to chop through ice with an axe and he still couldn't make it through after a few hours. I dout Bear would of made through with just a stick.
