Ice properties are hard to define and vary significantly in literature. While some of this variation can be attributed to different testing methods, the authors believe that most of this variation comes from the nature of the ice accretion itself. To address the problematic of scattering in mechanical properties values, a new approach is proposed which consists of expressing the behavior of atmospheric ice according to its density. Thanks to a hybrid experimental/numerical approach, the accurate measurement of the Young’s modulus of atmospheric ice can be done. Ice samples are generated in both cold room and wind tunnel and at many different test conditions. The results obtained in this study confirm the validity of this new approach and gives a concrete relationship between the Young’s modulus and the ice density. Finally, the relevance of using porous material hypothesis to explain the relation and the results domain of validity are discussed.