While the hunt for icy stalactites may seem quaint to those in warmer climes, it is serious business. Vladimir Akimov is one of Moscow s ice warriors. Falling icicles are a danger to city pedestrians, with seven people injured so far this winter. So far this year, seven Muscovites have been wounded by falling spears or blocks of ice. A normal winter here produces 50 snowstorms and so many icicles that 125 miles of warning ribbon are draped across the sidewalks like Christmas tinsel.
Muscovites look skyward while walking on winter days in the city.
The ribbons mark off the many danger areas, where gleaming icicles threaten to transform themselves into daggers. After Gulyeva's megaphone warning is heeded, two helmeted experts, dressed like mountain climbers, skid down the buildings on ropes from the roof. They attack ice formations built up on drains and balconies with ice axes and hatchets, dispatching boulders of ice five floors down to crash on the pavement. He wears a Balaclava ski mask under his yellow helmet and carries an assortment of carabiners and a belay device. Swinging from metal guard rails that are required by law on every Moscow roof, he hacks at the ice chunks like a lumberjack, and dislodges more with every well-placed kick of his boots.