12/17/17, Missoula - Clark Fork River, MT

Photo for Open Water Reformed

With Christmas break quickly approaching, I was assigned a dire task by the Spanish pastor of a newly upstarted fake church that my friends and I created, Open Water Reformed. The idea of the church (in reality it was a Bible study) was to hold weekly meetings out on any flowing or standing body of water. My mission: take a decent quality photo of water surrounded by ice and snow to post on Instagram announcing the upcoming two-week long winter break session of Open Water Reformed.

It didn’t take me long to think of a nearby location that would be suitable for announcing winter session 2017. With the Clark Fork River in mind, I bolted out the front two doors of Aber Hall and right outside of my dorm was my good friend, David Fite, walking to who knows where. Excited to see my adventurous friend, who was a veteran of the Freshman Wilderness Experience, a three-day long camping trip offered to incoming freshman at the University of Montana, I extended the invitation to come along. He accepted without much hesitation and we both went on our way to a bridge over the Clark Fork.

Upon our arrival to the bridge, I began taking a few photos that could have been satisfactory for the post, but just weren’t quite what I was wanting to represent the church. David was running out of time helping me make ice look pretty next to water, but he agreed to accompany me to check out one last spot down the East Kim Williams Trail.

As we walked along the trail that hugged the side of the river, we both noticed footsteps laid out in the snow on top of the frozen chunk of the river closest to us. We had no intention of crossing the river at first, but for kicks and giggles we conducted the rock test to check the strength of the ice. The rock test that we had both conjured up earlier in the semester by combining factors like gravity, speed, and weight works by throwing a stone onto the ice and if the stone breaks threw the ice then it is unable to support human weight (note: I don’t actually believe this is a safe way to test the strength of ice). Both of us chucked a rock onto the ice and to our surprise the ice held in-tact. Our curiosity surged, and we made our way down to the frozen water.

From the bank, I tapped my foot on the ice adding a small amount of my weight onto it. It didn’t take much for the slushy crystal water to start sinking beneath my feet. I concluded that the ice was unsafe to walk out onto, until David started making his path across the frozen river. After he made it about halfway across, I mustered up the courage (or stupidity) to challenge the elements. As I slowly stepped across the ice, I began to question the importance of this picture and regret my earlier actions, but there was no stopping now. I was already too far on the ice and the perfect picture was just a few steps away.

David and I made it to a stretch of solid ground covered in snow where I could safely take one photo that would without a doubt be the winning shot worthy of an Open Water Reformed Instagram post. I made it to the edge of the ice where the rapid I had been eyeing for the past 20 minutes was perfectly visible. I spotted a solid rock to support my footing that would enable me to calmly take the final shot. David stood a distance away waiting for me to be done. I jumped onto the rock and my expectations of security were shattered just as quickly as that thin block of ice. One-foot shot through the ice, while I used my other foot in an instant to propel my body onto what thankfully was an actual rock. Without wasting any more time, I snapped the best photo I could in a single shot and yelled out to David to start making our way back.

With nerves high, the treacherous walk back across to the precious solid ground began. David quickly made it to the bank without much difficulty, while I lay out in the middle of the fragile ice. The thin layer of safety keeping me from being sucked under emitted an eerie crackly noise. This heightened my sense of urgency to get off the ice. I picked up my pace and made one last jump from the edge of the ice and caught onto a branch on the bank to pull myself in. David also might have aided in preventing me from falling back.

We ran up the bank back onto the trail and we both could have kissed the ground. After realizing how dangerous of a situation we had just willingly put ourselves in, all we could do was laugh. In a small way, it felt as if we had just cheated death. We laughed for so long that I knew this was going to become a memory we would both treasure, but hopefully never repeat. Within the hour Open Water Reformed winter session was officially announced.