How To Get Yourself Out Of Ice Safely

How do you get out of ice safely?

Americans in cold-winter states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine) learn a specific set of ice-safety steps. If you fall through thin ice into cold water: stay calm, turn back toward the side you came from, kick your legs flat to the surface, pull yourself up, then roll away from the hole. The roll matters: spreading your weight across the ice keeps it from breaking again. Standing up too soon puts your full weight on a small spot and can crack the ice all over.

In this clip, a swimmer demonstrates each step and ends with the punchline: “That’s how you get out of ice.”