I have a lot of respect for ice. I’m a downright coward – even when my head tells me that the ice is thick enough, my heart chickens out. A lot of times it has meant that I have had to abandon some photo opportunities or do re-routes just because I don’t dare to cross the ice, and sometimes it’s only a question of a few steps across some ditch.

Today I snowshoed to Mon, since this was the first opportunity this winter. With the warm weather we’ve had, and now the cold temperatures, the snow holds really well with snowshoes. When I got down there, I found those slabs of ice I’ve talked about many times. And I saw that the water had already receded, however I could see below the ice slabs (in the picture) that there was some water left, so the ice was not completely on dry ground yet. But you can also see, it’s very thick ice! So I walked on, but since I have this respect for the ice, I kept following the shore (or what I assumed was the shore). And then it happened. My left foot sank right through and I found myself half sitting on the edge of a hole with my snowshoe clad foot stuck in the cold water. I leaned towards the shore (and a little bit of the ice broke again) but finally got my foot out of the hole. The end result was that my left boot was filled with water, and my left side was wet all the way up to my hips, and my butt was completely wet from sitting on the edge of the hole. My left glove was soaked and so was the jacket sleeve. Thankfully I was wearing a fleece shirt so my arm didn’t feel so cold even when wet. But as for the glove, it wasn’t fleece so I had to put it away and then just keep my fist inside the (icy) jacket sleeve to avoid freezing.

And then I just needed to hike home as fast as possible, with water sloshing in the left boot and my clothes gradually turning from wet to frozen, with me inside them. But this is why I wear fleece and other functional materials. I mean, not just in case I go for an icy swim. But because those kind of clothes are warm(ish) in any condition. So although I was feeling very cold in my butt and foot and arm when I got home, it was nothing that a set of dry clothes, blanket and a hot pillow didn’t cure.

I’ve often berated myself for being such a coward with ice. But being a coward is what saved me today. Otherwise I would’ve taken a shortcut across the pond instead of following the (imagined) shore, and what would I have done if the ice had broken under both my feet? With snowshoes to weigh me down? I don’t even want to think about it.