Winter dangers in snow country: Icicles

Over the past few days I’ve found myself writing again and again about winter dangers here in snow country, including things like back-country skiing accidents, and people getting injured or killed while trying to clear snow from their roofs. Living in Niigata (or any other snow-prone area, I imagine), these risks are drilled into you pretty quickly.

However, there's one winter hazard that doesn’t always register as dangerous, because it's honestly kind of beautiful, and that's icicles.

They're nice to admire from indoors, though :)

Out here, icicles can grow huge, forming along roof edges, balconies, gutters, shop awnings, and even cliffs along mountain roads. They look pretty, but the problem is that when they fall, they fall hard.

Every winter there are reports of people being injured by falling icicles out here. A large icicle can weigh several kilos, and once temperatures rise even slightly, gravity does the rest.

I think a big part of what makes icicles especially dangerous is that people don't instinctively treat them like a threat, or don't always think to look up. Long story short, if you see icicles be careful, and I don't advise walking under them!