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[k33n]

So, I found a really easy way to crack the aquifer on a biome that has winter. I just channeled down to the aquifer level in a big square, let it flood and freeze, and the channeled and smoothed the stone. No pumps or cave ins needed.

Also, this has got me thinking about making an elaborate cast ice fortress. If I pump a huge cube of water to the surface contained with wood walls, will it all freeze at winter?

EDIT: As I clicked accept on this post spring came and my ice walls melted, flooding my fortress.

[milo christiansen]

Cast ice forts in freezing biomes are possible provided two things are true:

The temperature never gets above freezing (which is obviously not the case in your fort).
You have a way to get the water to where it needs to go before it freezes (nearby magma should work).

Needless to say the amount of scaffolding required is huge, and you need to get both water AND magma to the surface. Basically the same as casting an obsidian fort, but instead of mixing the water and magma you use the magma to keep the water liquid (you need a floor between the two to prevent obsidianizing).

To my knowledge it has never been done on a large scale.

[Space Wizard]

Have you considered building walls instead of smoothing aquifer producing stone?

[Niddhoger]

Have you considered building walls instead of smoothing aquifer producing stone?

This, pumping in magma defeats the purpose entirely (unless you have a volcano, you had to bypass aquifer to reach magma).  In fact, magma-casting an aquifer is its on sub-type of breaching method mostly done for kicks (if you have volcano, you can bypass aquifer by digging around the volcano- aquifer tills stop a few tiles from magma vents). 

You don't even need a permanently freezing biome, you just have to be careful working only through the winter.  Channel out the squares and then carve out the ice+build walls.  Preferably you'll build walls against the entire perimiter of the aquifer to prevent having to re-channel the ice on subsequent seasons.  The main draw-back of this method is that you have to keep increasing the size of the channels at the BEGINNING layer and get smaller for each layer you pierce.  For piercing 1-3 layer aquifers its not so bad, but what if you prepare for piercing a 3 layer aquifer and it turns out to be 8 layers? You have to go back to the beginning and make the first layer larger over and over and over again (unless you use DF-hack reveal to find out exactly how many layers the aquifer is).  The other main drawback is that if you aren't in a perma-freezing biome you risk drowning your dorfs when it unthaws.  Also, if you have more than one dorf channel, you have a very high chance of one dropping the other dorf into water that immediately freezes on exposure- instantly killing the other miner with no hope of rescue. 

Alternatively, you can cheat with this method (like others) and create a drain for the water when it melts (cavern lake/edge of map drain). 

Sad to say, this is by no means a new method, and in fact is one I discovered on my own accidentally.  There has been an article on it under the aquifer tab in the DF wiki for years. 

[Insert_Gnome_Here]

I once made a fortress on a temperate ocean that froze in winter. Very FUN.