Uneven ridge on my ice (aka the Grand Canyon)

[jschultz]

Third year with a backyard rink, but my first post here and very happy to have found these forums, so hello to all!

I had pristine ice on Sunday, didn't check it on Monday, then yesterday I went out and a little less than half was covered with snow. Under the snow, the ice was still smooth, but the "non-snow" portion looks to be a re-frozen slush layer and now I have a large uneven ridge between the two sections. The ridge is also quite brittle; it was chipping away underneath my blades when I did a test skate last night. It's also dangerous, as it caught my edges quite a few times. What's my best option for dealing with this? Thanks in advance!

Jon

[kevmac]

What probably happened was water underneath your ice seeped up the sides and watered the snow, it froze and created your ridge. There was likely no water under the areas where the ice is still good. You have two courses of action -
1 - you can painstakingly attempt to chip away the ice
2 - you can flood over it

The first is extremely frustrating and usually results in defeat plus (at least for me). You are going to have to resurface anyway after the chipping so why not just flood. If you have the option of warm/hot water resurfacing, this might help lower some of the ridges and smooth it out. Depending on the height of your ridges, you could try to fill the lower areas with standing water and re-level your water level. Packed snow turned to slush is also a great way of filling low areas in a rink.