Although lakes may be solid, rivers hold unseen dangers.

High River Fire Chief Len Zebedee says the ice on storm retention ponds is currently safe, but he cautions people to always stay off river surfaces.

"Our storm retention ponds right now have approximately ten inches of ice.  They're quite safe to walk on.  Crews are monitoring that, the Operations Staff for the Town of High River checks all our ice surfaces on our storm ponds." Zebedee says they strongly caution people against walking on river ice.  He explains, "we don't check that, simply because river ice is unpredictable."

Zebedee says if you fall through the ice, hopefully you are with a friend.

"If you do fall through and you're with somebody, make sure it's a throw and go.  Lay flat on the ice, throw your jacket or a tree branch if you can out to that person to help them pull in onto the more solid ice.  Otherwise, you should be going for help right away and calling us in, 911."

He also notes that the flowing waters beneath river surfaces might have enough pressure to pull you beneath the ice.

"(We) certainly don't recommend walking on any ice surface like a river surface. Anytime of the year with flowing water or surfaces like the river you can have open areas that could be covered with a thin layer of ice or snow cover. If you're running up and down those ice surfaces with ski-doos, you want to be very, very cautious because you can fall through the ice."

Anyone wanting to know if ice in town is thick enough to walk on can call the High River Fire Hall or Town Operations.