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[expwnent]

I've had this problem, too. Bring stone with you when you embark. Then construct stairs with the stone.

[Hyndis]

No need for stone if you're doing it right.

You should have a frozen square of water. Leave the edge of it frozen, and then carve stairs down through the middle of the ice. As it is outdoors you will never have to worry about it thawing. Once you're through the ice you'll be digging through soil or solid rock, which cannot melt.

It takes a few tries to get the digging done right, but its really easy to practice. Once you get the sequence down you should be through the aquifer less than a month after embarking.

[gtmattz]

No need for stone if you're doing it right.

You should have a frozen square of water. Leave the edge of it frozen, and then carve stairs down through the middle of the ice. As it is outdoors you will never have to worry about it thawing. Once you're through the ice you'll be digging through soil or solid rock, which cannot melt.

It takes a few tries to get the digging done right, but its really easy to practice. Once you get the sequence down you should be through the aquifer less than a month after embarking.

I just tried a fort in a freezing area to see how it works, and it seems that when you go to dig stairs out of the ice walls it leaves ramps instead!?   

To back up a little, I started out by channeling out a 5x5 shaft down to the layer above the aquifer.  then I channeled the floor to open the aquifer to the sky, which caused the water below to freeze and left open space on the level i channeled form.  So I built some down stairs on that level so that i could dig out some up/down stairs in the ice.  When the dwarves dug the up/down stairs that left ramps for some reason.  However, I was able to build up/down stairs in the same tile as the ramps at least, so was then able to continue on down with my stairs.

[Boingboingsplat]

I've done this before, it's not to hard. Just channel out a 3x3 from the aquifer, minus the center tile, an expose it to surface. Dig stairs through the middle. Done!

[Hyndis]

On the flooded water layer, dig all up stairs. On the surface dig down stairs. On all the layers in between dig up/down stairs.

Remove each level of stairs one at a time until you're left with just the last layer of down stairs that head into the 7/7 water. Channel the stairs out.

As there is 7/7 water dwarves will not attempt to dig from within the water. As soon as the water hits the air it will freeze. With a frozen block of ice you can just dig your stairs down in the middle to the never level.

[Flaede]

Just a note: if you get this to partially work but need another trick up your sleeve, remember that smoothing an aquifer wall will stop it leaking water.

[Some Internet Guy]

Just a note: if you get this to partially work but need another trick up your sleeve, remember that smoothing an aquifer wall will stop it leaking water.

Holy shit what

Awesome

[Rorcayt]

The aquifer penetration techniques still all work. Trust me, Get used to it and you never have to worry about your ideal embark being one.