Ice Shelf!!

I finally stood on the ice shelf!!!! It took almost 3 years from my first swims when I saw others climb on it to today when the conditions were right and I was able to, but I did it! Yay! I have to say, it was a little scary and a little awesome, and I'm hoping to do it again tomorrow.

We've been having a lot of cold weather this month, but for a while it was so windy that the lake didn't freeze over. Yesterday I went swimming after dark and the part of the shelf that was close to me was too thin to stand on, and I didn't feel super comfortable swimming out to the further part. But today, in the daylight, it seemed very doable. I got into the water between the docks, swam out to the ice, and kind of tested it. It felt super thick, and didn't crack at all, so I thought it would hold me. I did a shimmy from the water, going onto the ice on my stomach, and then got my legs up on the ice. There were no cracks or other noises, so I got my feet under me and stood. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty scary. I hadn't worn my swim bubble, and felt like if I fell through and got stuck under the ice it would be a thing. But, fortunately nothing even cracked as I got my legs under me, and so I slowly went for it and stood up. It was awesome. I stood on it for only a few seconds, just enough time to do a little dance, and then I got back down and did a backwards slide off, back into the water. Achievement unlocked!

The water's been about 34 for the last couple of weeks, and I'm sort of starting to get used to it. I was in for 7 minutes today and it didn't feel that bad. I had on booties and gloves, and my hands were cold, but otherwise I felt fine. Even after getting out, I had to do a little jogging around to warm up, but it wasn't that bad. Hopefully this is a good sign for the swim festival - I haven't been swim swimming for a couple weeks because of the cold and looking for an ice shelf. I'm going to have to get back into practice runs once I get over the ice shelf excitement.

This other video is just fun: