Ice work, if you can get it.
Written by John Macpherson
Ice shards catching sunset light. © John MacPherson
“PYINNNNNG PYINNNG PUH-PUH-PUH-PYYYYYINNNNNNG”
The rather eerie noise echoed around me and I could actually feel it, my ears ringing and my chest cavity resonating with each burst. I looked around. Nothing to be seen. Well, nothing apart from an ice-fisherman some way off standing motionless above a small dark hole.
“PYINNNNNG PYINNNG PUH-PUH-PUH-PYYYYYINNNNNNG PYINNNNNG PYINNNG PUH-PUH-PUH-PYYYYYINNNNNNG” it went again.
A sound that was ‘somewhere’ but nowhere, and everywhere, all at the same time. My body vibrated in a rather disconcerting way. I realized that the frequencies I could hear were only part of the spectrum of sound that had enveloped me, other deeper, infra-sounds were present too, the air shifting invisibly pushing me to and fro.
Once again I looked around for something that might explain this odd phenomenon. I was high in the mountains of New Mexico, in midwinter, in sub-zero temperatures, beside a lake ringed with hills, a perfect natural amphitheater, and I’d wandered away from my 4×4 to watch the ice-fisherman. And that’s all there was – me, him, ice, mountains.
“PYINNNNNG PYINNNG PUH-PUH-PUH-PYYYYYINNNNNNG” it went again.
This time I was closer to the ice and I could swear the sound came from below me. I stepped onto the frozen lake surface and waited.
“PYINNNNNG PYINNNG PUH-PUH-PUH-PYYYYYINNNNNNG” echoed all around and this time I could feel it through my boots as the ice surface reverberated.
And then the penny dropped. The ice sheet completely covered the lake, and the sun was shining, and as the ice expanded in the ‘heat’ it was ‘singing’ a song of stress and fracture, its sound energy reflected off the surrounding hills.
I placed a bare hand on the ice, the bitter cold stinging my exposed skin. I waited, and waited and then “PYINNNNNG PYINNNG PUH-PUH-PUH-PYYYYYINNNNNNG” and I could feel it! Like an electrical pulse the vibrations shot up my arm, at the same time the air hummed with the energy released.
A singing lake!
This was in the days before iPhones and pocket digital recorders, so I simply sat and marveled, and let my tissue reverberate in sympathy with this piece of natural magic.
I was reminded of this today when I watched this astonishing video of musicians ‘playing’ the ice on Lake Baikal. Magic!
Author — John Macpherson
John MacPherson was born and lives in the Scottish Highlands. He trained as a welder in the Glasgow shipyards, before completing an apprenticeship as a carpenter, and then qualified as a Social Worker in Disability Services. Along the way he has cooked on canal barges, trained as an Alpine Ski Leader & worked as an Instructor for Skiers with disabilities, been a canoe instructor, and tutor of night classes in carpentry, stained glass design and manufacture, and archery. He has travelled extensively on various continents, undertaking solo trips by bicycle, or motorcycle. He has had narrow escapes from an ambush by terrorists, been hit by lightning, caught in an erupting volcano, trapped in a mobile home by a tornado, kidnapped by a dog's hairdresser, rammed by a basking shark and was once bitten by a wild otter. He has combined all this with professional photography, which he has practised for over 35 years. He teaches photography and acts as a photography guide & tutor in the UK and abroad. His biggest challenge is keeping his 30 year old Land Rover 110 on the road. He loves telling and hearing stories.
Discussion (2 Comments)
(N)ice work, John, and a very enjoyable video too. One question I’ve been meaning to ask you, nothing related to the post as such, but more on this new blog format. Why isn’t there a navigation link to the next or previous story from this page? It’s a minor inconvenience to click on a story, then back to the blog link, then click on the next post etc. Kind of loses the continuity, don’t you think?
🙂 Thanks Farhiz. Good question! The blog is owned by duckrabbit and managed for them by a web designer, and I’ve not really got direct control, but I will ask someone to look into your suggestion – it does make a lot of sense. It is evolving as suggestions like this come in so bear with us!