I knew it was going to suck. This has happened to me before and it was one of the most terrifying things that has ever happened to me. No one had taught me how to handle the situation; I didn’t know what to do. I survived but I was lucky. Every year this happens to people and yet we put very little effort into learning what to do. If this demonstration saves one of our member’s lives it will all be worth it. And that is why we decided to jump into a frozen river!
It was February of 2015, one of the coldest weeks of the year. The temperature the night before was -24 C, the kind of cold that hurts your skin. It was snowing that day, heavy wet flakes consistently falling on top of us while we worked to saw through the more than a foot of ice below our feet. It took us an hour to break through, all of us wet from the sweat building underneath our many layers of clothing.
As more and more people showed up to watch and learn my heart began to beat faster. The team was finishing the final safety precautions as the last members joined us. Everything was in place, our medic was watching vigilantly, our harnesses were secure and our heated shelter was ready to go. There was nothing left to do but to take the plunge.
As I approached the gaping hole, Eric addressed the crowd. Eric was our facilitator that day and helped guide all of us through this experience. As I stared into the hole my body shivered involuntarily and I overheard a voice saying “The information provided today could save your life”. With one last deep breath I started towards the water and jumped in.
STEP 1
PUT YOUR ARMS OUT TO THE SIDE TO KEEP YOUR HEAD ABOVE WATER
As my body submerged into the icy bath, I shot my arms out to the sides to keep my head from going under. My lungs instantly gasped for air. It was uncontrollable and terrifying. If my head had gone under I would have inhaled a mouthful of water and been in serious trouble. With my body convulsing under the calm surface of the water my lungs greedily gulped mouthful after mouthful of air.
STEP 2
GET YOUR BREATHING UNDER CONTROL
I felt the panic of helplessness at that moment. The pain pierced through my body and I could hear how hard my lungs were working. Those three seconds turned to hours and my mind left my body, forgetting where I was and what I was doing. “Peter is going to focus on relaxing and getting his breathing under control before he does anything”. It was Eric’s voice that brought me back. He was calm, collected and guided me back to my objective. I began to concentrate on my breathing. Deep, slow breaths helped relax my body to a point that I could start to get out.
STEP 3
FIND THE LAST PLACE YOU STEPPED ON
In a real situation I would find the last place that held my body up. When my breathing was finally under control I turned towards my snow prints and began my escape.
STEP 4
BRING YOUR BODY HORIZONTAL WITH THE ICE AND KICK WITH YOUR LEGS
It is important not to immediately try to stand up. If the ice is weak you are likely to continue breaking the ice beneath you. You have to crawl as much of your body onto the ice as you can and flutter kick your way out. My wet arms lead the way through the snow covered ice as I kicked my way out of the water. Once my entire body was outside of the ice I rolled away from the hole to disperse my weight and also to have the snow suck the moisture off of my body.
STEP 5
GET DRY AND GET WARM
The water on my body was sucking heat away from my body. I had to get dry which meant I had to take all my clothes off. I struggled to get my belt off as my fingers simply stopped working. My body shivered violently in the cold air and each second that passed made it more and more agonizing for me. I began ripping clothes off without my thought or care. I wrapped myself in a dry towel and crawled into our heated shelter. I laid myself down and closed my eyes wishing for the pain to subside. The movement in my fingers slowly began getting stronger. The tingling feeling in my toes turned from pain to pleasure as I could feel blood flowing freely through them again. I got dressed in dry clothes and after about 15 minutes joined the crowd again to watch the last volunteer take his plunge.
Leaving the shelter I felt invigorated. I was alert and energetic; I actually felt better than before I jumped in. My body felt good, a rush of pleasure entered my muscles as they flexed with movement. Should you do this..? Fuck No! We did all of this to teach our members what to do if they ever fall through. Ice is never 100% safe so the best advice is to stay off the ice altogether.
Want to see how Peter & Dom felt when they jumped into the ice? Check out our Cold Water Immersion video here
