I'd deliberately dressed without a heavy parka so I'd get good and numb (it's much easier to jump into a frozen lake in midwinter if you don't wait until the last minute to take off your parka) -- but the wind chill was ungodly. This picture doesn't begin to convey how miserable I was at 10:15 or so when there were still 45 minutes to go until the Plunge actually started.
The hole had been cut into the ice well before the event started. Big foot-thick cubes of ice were lying around near the shore. There was no chance of any of the folks shown in this picture falling through.
This is where we Plunged -- that's the US Coast Guard station in the background. The ramp leads down into the water and keeps on going for a ways, so it wasn't actually a good idea to dive. In previous years, folks who dove once they reached the water wound up scraping their chests open on the rough surface of the ramp. The guys in camouflage are cadets from Norwich University, the Vermont military college, who served as crowd control, icebreakers, you name it.
The lakeshore right next to the boat ramp is a low rocky ridge; most onlookers stood atop the ridge to watch. I stood a few feet out onto the ice and took this picture of Carole all swaddled up
Once we were down by the lake, the wind dropped off a bit and I wasn't so miserable. In fact, when the wind wasn't blowing the sun almost made me feel warm. Almost.
The shirt I have on is an American Red Cross "Donate Blood" shirt with the American flag logo inside a drop of blood. It seemed like the appropriate thing to wear at the time, although I couldn't say why now.
It was so freaking cold that the hole in the ice kept freezing over again. Finally, a Coast Guard diver in a dry suit jumped in and started swimming about, presumably to keep the hole ice-free until all the Plungers started jumping in themselves.
The various groups of Plungers were given numbers and made to take their turns. The low-number groups were groups of employees from individual companies. The higher-number groups, like Group 20, were random individuals grouped together by the event organizers.
I'm visible at the back of the pack wearing a yellow baseball cap.
We were getting yelled at all the way down the ramp: "DON'T RUN, DON'T RUN." The ramp was icy where water left by previous groups on their way out had started to freeze, and I suppose the event organizers didn't want any messy accidents.
An additional complication: the crowds of kids holding beach towels, waiting for us to enter the water and come out again so they could give each of us a towel. The ramp was so thick with them that I felt sort of like I was a football player trying to make it through a gauntlet of tacklers to the end zone. Yes, they should have stayed back until we'd made it by, but they were little kids, and you know how little kids are.
I had to almost stop as the person in front of me hesitated at the last minute. I wasn't real thrilled about that -- it's a lot easier to Plunge when you don't have to stop and think about what you're doing.
I wore a pair of old white sneakers into the water. This was not cheating. I don't think I saw anyone going in barefoot; it just wouldn't have been smart, traction-wise, to say nothing of losing toes to the cold.
I went in bare-chested. Some folks wore sweatshirts and t-shirts into the water. I thought this was missing the point a bit, and besides, it only meant that when you came out you'd have a sodden, soaking sweatshirt on that would IMMEDIATELY start to freeze. Me, I'd rather have no shirt on and be able to get into something warm afterwards that much faster.
I wasn't about to be one of the folks who got in up to their knees and then turned around; I was hell-bent on getting in at least up to my chest.
At that point I began to dive forwards. I couldn't very well run when I was up to my waist in water.
For some reason, group 20 broke into two groups. The first wave was turning to go, I was well out into the water, and a second wave arrived. The guy second from the right in this photo is holding a toy penguin of some kind.
I was looking around for Carole so I could wave to her. She'd told me that she'd be on the thick ice by the lakeshore, but I couldn't spot her. It turned out that she was on the pier on the left side of the ramp, which we'd earlier been told was off-limits. Hence, I didn't think to look for her there.
You can also see the toy penguin more clearly in this picture. I don't know if it was stuffed or plastic -- I didn't even register that the guy had a penguin until I saw the photos later.
On the far right, a late arrival shows up wearing a large sombrero.
I figured I might as well take my cap off and wave it around; what else was I do to, stand there in the water and wait for body parts to fall off?
That's when the guy in the sombrero did a full flop right next to me.
I then thought, "well, what else can I do?" and proceeded to jump up and down in the water. I wasn't thinking yet about getting out because I wanted to make sure Carole had every opportunity to get lots of photos.
Note the penguin and the sombrero, too.
More jumping up and down.
Note all the cool steam coming off the water. The water was 32 degrees; the air was -5.
Eventually we had to get out; the next group was going to be showing up atop the ramp at any moment and it wouldn't have been a good idea to get in their way.
Note that everyone else coming out of the water with me had a shirt on. I'm sure they started to regret it as the shirts froze right on their backs.
I'm sort of curious what's going on behind me here.
Girl Scouts, or someone, we don't know who, were waiting to hand us all official Penguin Plunge towels
At this point, I was sort of trying to get the towel unfurled and wrapped around me, but my fingers were sort of, um, cold.
Even though we were the 20th group to go, the crowd along the ramp whooped and hollered as we triumphantly came up the ramp as though we were the first group and not the 20th of 32. It was nice, in a perverse way, but for some reason I felt sort of sheepish.
After I got changed, Carole and I headed into the registration tent, now basically being used by people to warm up. Bruegger's Bagels had donated many, many bagels and cream cheese, and someone was serving hot cocoa. Note how red Carole's face looked -- she'd had her gaiter and cap on, but even then her face was red from the cold.
