I fell through ice on a pond as a kid doing something stupid. I remember
- it was really cold
- it was shallow enough I could stand
- as I tried to get back on top of the good ice it kept breaking as well
- the trick was to spread as much of your weight over as large an area as possible but I still don’t remember exactly how I did it
- the walk home was super cold
Healthy respect for this sort of thing. One of many incidents growing up that could have turned out way different.
Our ponds in Texas froze occasionally. We always sent the 100-lb dog out first to see if it would hold us.
You were lucky. You would have drowned had the water been over your head. Slippery ice, clothes saturated with water, the inability to pull yourself out and onto the ice and the extreme cold would have done you in.
Ice fishermen know to carry ice picks such as these.
