How to walk on ice

Infographic by Curtis Whaley. (Via Mental Floss)

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

Hopefully diving into icy shark-infested waters and eating raw herring is optional.
- fuzzyfuzzyfungus
  
  Ooh, just wait until you get ripped apart in the mommy-blogosphere for not regurgitating partially digested fish into your toddler’s waiting mouth…
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  Well you probably have the flightless part down
- James Penrose
  
  Raw herring with chopped onion; One of Holland’s greatest gifts to mankind’s snack larder.
http://openid.aliz.es/DatSeal DatSeal

Speaking from experience coming from a land of 6 month Winters frought with ice. Yes this does work. Also running on ice works really well.

What the article doesn’t show is that toe first walking works as well. Heel first tends to cause spills.
- chgoliz
  
  Any type of walking that keeps your center of gravity over BOTH feet at all times works. Basically, very short steps.
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  And if you know you are going to be outside in icy conditions for a while buying some ice creepers for your boots is worth it.
  
  http://www.kahtoola.com/microspikes.php
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I grew up putting my whole foot down flat. There’s no momentum to start skidding.
  - Jen Onymous
    
    Agreed—with a sort of side to side penguiny thing going on. I went to school in upstate NY and a lot of the walkways iced over FAST and there was too much hardpack snow to walk on that instead. You learn fast.
  - dnebdal
    
    Exactly that. Putting the heel down first makes you much more likely to skid and fall. :)
- dnebdal
  
  Running on ice really is a good solution – I’m not sure exactly why, but it’s way more stable than walking normally. Of course, it also makes it more exciting if you still lose control.
mtdna

So if you’re an old hobo, you can just walk like usual.
- freshyill
  
  I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, but I’m certainly convinced!
elisd

“Think of yourself as a penguin and you’ll be allright.” This is good advice for life, I think.
- blueelm
  
  It is certainly going to be my mantra for the day.
- fuzzyfuzzyfungus
  
  Though it can be a real problem if you end up having to use certain models of Broadcom wireless chipsets…
- voiceinthedistance
  
  I think of myself as an orca, and regret to inform you that you penguins will not be all right.
  - duncancreamer
    
    We’ll be fine. Orcas are even worse on ice than people.
- JProffitt71
  
  I was just going to say that this could apply just about anywhere.
http://twitter.com/pickledbeatnik pickledbeatnik

I’ve been doing the Charlie Chaplin “Little Tramp” walk. It’s essentially the same thing, and just as awesome.
- Fef
  
  Does twirling the cane at the hip stabilize you?
freshyill

This is great, I guess, but people don’t fall because they’re walking on ice. People fall because they slipped on ice they didn’t know was there. Solution: always walk like a penguin.
- GlyphGryph
  
  I’ve known people who’ve managed to slip and fall despite knowing they were on ice, simply because they were unfamiliar with it.
- Jerril
  
  People fall on known ice all the time. Ice doesn’t stop being ice just because you know about it. Add a little slush or water on top of that horrible smooth glass ice with an air temperature around freezing, and you’re just plain going to slip and fall unless you waddle.
  
  Freezing rain sucks.
WinstonSmith2012

Ah! Just do the zombie walk. People are going to look at you like you’re one.
http://profile.yahoo.com/QCGOSVXBEAG7HHTZ5MNMYTZ2HM Cleo

Why does the graphic show a hipster falling in typical mid-summer garb?
- fuzzyfuzzyfungus
  
  Dude, he was into hats and scarves before it was cold.
  - copperwatt
    
    So much win!!!
Snig

Tai Chi has a concept of “avoid being double weighted”. Similar idea, except instead of waddling, they practice being able to have 100% of your weight on either leg throughout all the stances, and being quickly able to transfer weight from one leg to another. Also, most of the weight is kept on the front part of the foot, off the heel. Tai chi players tend to fall less.
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  I even have a walk I use when walking in a dark room barefoot (going to/from bed). I turn my feet inwards so if I bang my toes it will hit them on the side instead of smashing them straight on. Much less painful.
  - Snig
    
    Breaking the little toe while walking into furniture is classic, it’s called a “bedroom fracture”.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Mine was at a 90° angle to the rest of my foot. Good times.
      - Snig
        
        Ow. Though if it healed that way, you might have had extra stability on ice.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        If I could have stopped quaking and gibbering in horror.
      - SomeGuyNamedMark
        
        That made me cringe
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        You and the crowd in the ER waiting room.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    You walk with your feet in the toe-break posture and pseudo-skate on ice? Can’t you just get a Vicodin prescription without wasting the ER’s time?
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dale-Jack/698328731 Dale Jack

Is this some kind of joke just so the people who don’t have to deal with ice can laugh at us? They could have just said “Don’t do the silly John Cleese walk” rather than “do the silly penguin walk”.
- BillStewart2012
  
  Pretty much. It’s like the advice in the California DMV driver’s manuals about “ice might be hiding on bridges”, for people who’ve never driven on the stuff before.
  
  On the other hand, they also have issues that don’t make sense to folks from elsewhere, like being careful on the first rainy day of the season because built-up oil might be slick. (For Easterners, “first rainy day of the season” is “what, Tuesday or so?”)
  - timquinn
    
    tire dust.
  - Ed Mar
    
    Remember – for every handy tip and warning offered in any manual or handbook designed for new users, there was a dummy that necessitated its inclusion in the first place.
  - fuzzyfuzzyfungus
    
    The ice-on-bridges warning actually shows up even in places like New Hampshire, were it isn’t exactly an oddity.
    
    For the not-terribly-physics-inclined, it isn’t immediately obvious that bridges cool down to air temperature a great deal faster than roads sitting on top of a whole lot of dirt do, leading to periods in the fall where the roads are just damp; but the bridges are frozen.
http://twitter.com/incarnedine_v Dan Hibiki

that is not how you do a slide kick.
you’re suppose to jump first:
http://splatterhouse.kontek.net/namco10.png
Damian Sol

The hard part of using this technique (the practice of which, as a former Tahoe resident, I agree with 100% — it’s not the only technique, but it’s sound) is putting your weight forward when coming down icy hills. But then, it’s even more important. If you slide a little, you’re in a good position to ride it out, rather than immediately falling on your ass.
- duncancreamer
  
  As a Canadian, this got ingrained into me so as I prefer walking on ice now and as a kid, used to spend the summer wearing down my shoes so as to make them nice and slippy. Also I can Curl.
- novium
  
  As another former Tahoe resident, I can attest to that. I always thought all the ski-balance skills came in handy on my daily walk down the steep path to my house. Weight very centered, ever so slightly forward, and not fighting the sliding, just going with it. It was actually a little fun.
SomeGuyNamedMark

Taking short little steps and shuffling your feet is how I’ve always walked on ice. Always seemed the natural way to do it.
- xzzy
  
  My theory has always been that this is less effective, because you’re intentionally giving up whatever traction that foot might have had by sliding it around. Things that are sliding tend to continue sliding until they lose momentum, so if you shift your weight suddenly or the texture of the ice changes.. down you go.
  
  The stride suggested in the post not only allows one to walk at normal speed, but gives some defense against short slips. As your balance is already properly set, you’ll just slide a little bit instead of toppling.
  
  It only breaks down if there’s a layer of water on top of the ice.. in those cases, you really gotta slow it down.
  - SomeGuyNamedMark
    
    I feel like by shuffling I always have both feet on the ground and my weight is over the foot sliding forward. It is slower but beats falling.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Things that are sliding tend to continue sliding until they lose momentum
    
    Yeah, you want only vertical motion when you’re on a slick surface.
caddywumpus

I’ve walked on ice in Antarctica and can confirm the validity of this lesson.
- Lobster
  
  You’ve got some serious ice cred. Antarctica ice is way icier than non-polar ice.
  - caddywumpus
    
    Was more a reference to the penguin thing, but I’ll take the ice cred!
jandrese

I would have thought that this is something everybody figures out about 2 minutes after stepping on ice for the first time. I know that’s how I figured it out.

Well, that and it’s more fun to build up a bit of momentum and then slide (feet further apart while sliding) instead of waddling like a penguin the whole way.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I would have thought that this is something everybody figures out about 2 minutes after stepping on ice for the first time.
  
  you’ve failed to allow for the cognitive effects of the concussion.
- novium
  
  I can say with certainty that this is not true. When I first met my friend’s now-husband, it was when she brought him up to my place in Tahoe. He spent the entire weekend falling on his behind, hard, no matter how many times we’d tell him to keep his weight very centered and on his whole foot and take small, flat steps. He just kept going for these big heel-first strides. WHAM. He was not a happy camper.
http://twitter.com/Akos_Fintor Akos Fintor

Now, I know I will be ok. thanks
Lobster

I think of myself as a penguin. That’s why I slide on my belly.
- novium
  
  I saw some snowboard kids doing that at a ski resort a couple of times. It was as adorable as it was foolhardy.
winkybb

I’ve spent a bit of time in Ulaan Baatar in the winter. Not much side walk shovelling or treatment goes on there, so lots of slick ice. The locals have it down. They sort of skate shuffle with sliding feet. They move pretty quickly and they don’t seem to ever fall. It is just we visitors who seem to struggle.
Nadreck

It also helps to do the “Mountaineer’s Waltz”: varying every footstep a bit instead of just putting your dogs down pointing towards your destination on every step. This helps for two reasons:

1 – Ice walking requires more effort out of your calves as you have to push off with your feet instead of using the momentum of your gait. Making every step identical tends to cause repetitive stress until you’re used to it – but by then it’s Summer!

2- Unless you’re a pioneer lots of people have gone this way before and have dug two little runnels of super-slippery ice down the path. You’d rather not skate along on those so you put your feet across, not on, them. Works for a little while until the whole width of the path has been polished down to a nice flat expanse of Black Ice.
- chgoliz
  
  The way we do it: when there’s ice on the path, we walk in the snow on the side of the path instead.
  - Nadreck
    
    Thus creating a second path, with the same problems, beside the first. Also generally the path is where it is because there’s 4 foot high drifts on either side of it.
sirgoofs

Duh.
rocketpjs

Anyone who grew up in snowy places knows this stuff cold.

Driving in snow is another aspect that is not actually hard, but seems to utterly baffle and horrify the drivers here in Vancouver the 2-4 days/year we get snow. The whole city grinds to a halt after a 1 cm snowfall.
- winkybb
  
  The strange thing about snowfall in Vancouver is that when it happens, I personally meet every single person in the whole city that knows how to drive in snow. Apparently, every person that I don’t meet that day cannot drive in snow, and are therefore the cause of all the traffic problems.
  
  I have NEVER personally met anyone who does not know how to drive in snow, yet 99.9999% of the population apparently do not. Some coincidence, eh?
pjcamp

Wrong way: walk on the ice.
Right Way: walk on the damn sidewalk.
- tubacat
  
  …the damn sidewalk that’s covered with ice?
  - pjcamp
    
    No, the other one the city cleans.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      My experience is that the city pushed snow out of the road and onto the sidewalk.
      - pjcamp
        
        When I was a graduate student at the University of Michigan, they cleared snow from the parking lot at my dorm and piled a large fraction of it in a seven foot high hill behind my car. It was a while before I could figure out where to get a shovel to dig out, and I went out once a week to run the motor for a while and keep the battery up. When I finally dug out, the snow at the bottom of the pile had compacted into a sheet of ice about two inches thick and I had to wait until neighboring cars had left so I could go slippy sliding out of the parking space.
        
        But they kept all the sidewalks peachy clean using tractors with rotating brushes on the front.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dale-Jack/698328731 Dale Jack

Canadian too… and this time of year when things are thawing and freezing is worst for that ice. Actually the side-kick pic reminded me of a move that is way more valuable than the penguin thing. Once you feel your feet going out from under you jump as high as you can and try your best to land hard and solid. I used it quite successfully this evening, as a matter of fact.