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[Milkymalk]

In an attempt to have access to fresh water without bogging down my fps by having a brook, I tried playing with aquifers. I understand the concept of breaking through them, however I like playing in freezing biomes so while channeling out the aquifer, all my miners regularly wander into the freshly dug-out channel, which in turn floods and freezes, encasing my miner in ice. I lost so many starting fortresses to this thing that I lost my motivation to keep trying - can you give me any advice how I can prevent this without nerve-wrecking fiddling with traffic areas?

[Fleeting Frames]

1) Dig downstairs.
2) dig upstairs into aquifer.
3) Remove downstairs, and aquifer freezes.

[Milkymalk]

And if I don't have anything above it and just want to pierce through it by using layers of ice?

[Fleeting Frames]

Your dwarves wouldn't be able to walk there to dig ramps if there wasn't a floor. Dig downstairs.

Or, you know, break through with standard double-slit without exposing the aquifer to sky.

[Slogo]

• Dig Downstairs on the top most layer for every tile of the aquifer you want to dig out. Give yourself at least 4 extra tiles of width for each aquifer layer (i.e if you want a 3x3 entrance on a 1 level aquifer you would dig out a 7x7 square).
• Dig Up/Downstairs on the layer below
• Wait for the aquifer breach to be 7/7/
• Channel out the topmost layer one row (or column) at a time.
  
• Don't let dwarves mine tiles that other dwarves are standing on, I like to only have 1 miner for the channeling because of this
• When one row/column is dug out, move on to the next.
• For the final row dig in from the outside in.

This works is for a few reasons. By digging downstairs then up/down stairs like this the aquifer lay will be considered "inside" and won't freeze automatically. This protects your dwarf for the first step and ensures the tiles fill to 7/7 which prevents dwarves from pathing into them willingly. Digging up/down stairs will remove the possibility of a ramp on the tile on the lower level. This again prevents any form of willful pathing to the lower level and is just a basic requirement of clearing out space so you can pierce the aquifer. The last part, removing the downstairs, changes the tiles from indoors to outside and causes the water to freeze based on ambient temperature. Since the dwarf doesn't stand where they are channeling they won't be encased in ice.

The last precaution is to use one miner at a time for the channeling, although rare they can dig out a tile from under another dwarf so you want to avoid that.

The last last step is to make sure you build a retaining wall before spring.