On a freezing 5-degree day in December 2010, Jesse Itzler found himself waist high in a frozen lake in Connecticut.
“We’ve got five minutes till frostbite … GET OUT NOW!” his Navy Seal house guest yelled at him.
Jesse didn’t know what to think.
“Don’t touch your skin to the ice as you get out — it’ll stick,” Seal barked.
Jesse grabbed his sneakers and used them as gloves, climbed out of the hole in the ice, and crawled across the frozen lake with his bare feet sticking up. It took him two minutes to get to land. He had about three minutes left until frostbite. Jesse started to run up a snow-covered hill barefoot and managed to get about halfway to his house when he heard:
“Don’t worry, the snow will dry out your feet. We’ve got two minutes. RUN!”