Abstract Transmission line icing seriously endangers the safe operation of transmission lines. At present, most of the research on transmission line icing is based on numerical simulation, and the growth law of transmission line ice in a natural environment has not been explored and studied. In this paper, natural ice-covering experiments are carried out in the Xuefeng Mountain Field (Natural) Ice Covering Test Base of Chongqing University, and single conductor, three-split, and four-split conductor ice-covering change rules in the mixed rime ice environment are explored. Test results found that the wind direction has a greater impact on the ice, and the windward side of the conductor ice is much larger than the leeward side. The downwind side of the ice of both single conductor and split conductor is smaller than the upwind side. The weight of ice on the split conductor line on the downwind side is about 86% of that on the upwind side. The results can provide a reference for the design of external insulation of UHV DC transmission lines.