About five minutes after this footage was taken I wandered too far onto an escarpment of ice over Lake Superior. Marching out there, intending to be careful and to stay a couple feet from the edge, I said, “Let’s go risk our lives!”
I remember the crack opening up about four feet from the edge. I made a failed attempt to leap to my partner as the tip of this ice jetty as big as a car calved off and dunked me in. The water was calm and only a couple feet deep — I knew this, which had increased my bravado (also I am familiar with the area and have played there many winters) — but the fall was nevertheless several feet onto a chunky pile of loose slush. I banged my knee up, soaked my pants and boots with icy water, and scared my partner to death.
I was an idiot, the air temps were above freezing in full sun, and a small voice kept telling me the edge was only a weak conglomerate. I’d been out on it several times in recent weeks with a careful eye, and should have calculated the risks more accurately that day. For instance, if I’d hit my head as hard as I hit my knee, things could have gone very differently. Let’s be careful out there folks. DON’T DO WHAT I DID.
I wish the camera had been rolling when I fell so you could see this sort of close call and I didn’t even get good footage of my fall, so be more smart. This video clearly shows me being foolish so I have given it a vapidly peppy soundtrack to emphasize how maybe I should have been taking it all more seriously. I deserved it.
