Man Discovers a Strange Way to Walk On Ice Without Slipping — And Surprisingly, It Worked

Walking on ice is a tricky sport. As the low friction of ice creates “black ice,” the thin watery coating on a cobblestone walkway or a road causes it to become slippery. It is only due to this low friction that bobsledders are able to glissade down the winding ice tracks in their four-wheeled vehicles, and why figure skaters can twirl in dizzying circles. All these sports might be fitting enough for an icy road. But if there’s one challenging thing, it's walking. Experts recommend a number of methods that can allow a person to walk on ice. Walk like a penguin, for instance. Or use shoes with good traction and grip. One man employed an entirely bizarre trick to do this. A video of him walking on the ice was recorded and posted by a woman named Jojo (@imliterallymexican). 

“So apparently if you put on socks on the outside of your shoes, you can walk on the ice better,” said the man dressed in a black puffer jacket, a pair of khakis, and a pink cap. He pulled out some socks from his pant pockets and flashed them on the camera. He opened the front door of his house to reveal a stairway carved in mint-colored wood. The brown steps seemed to be blanketed with white snow. Wearing nothing special but only a pair of sneakers on his feet, the man started descending the steps gently and slowly.

As his first step fell on the stairs, he found himself sliding down the stairs. He latched onto the stairway’s railing for support. Sliding this way, he plonked on the front road, which, too, was covered in snow. The video then cut to a scene where the man was, once again, inside the house, fiddling with his socks. This time, he did something unusual. Without removing his sneakers, he dressed up his feet in these socks, wrapping the shoes. “Pretty attractive. Moment of truth,” he exclaimed while staring at the camera. Once again, he ventured on the daring feat of walking down the icy steps.

This time, however, he was able to walk down the steps quite smoothly, instead of sliding and slipping all the way. “Oh, no way,” he said. Once he put his feet on the road, he turned back with a wide smile and then ascended the steps once again without slipping. Thousands of people flocked to the comments section to express amazement at this quirky “life hack.” “I’ve been walking on ice wrong my entire life,” said @mellystacksss with a laughter emoji. @smashevans said, “Okay, so instead of chains or snow tires, we just need to have Hanes start making us tire socks.”

Another TikTok user, @stephanie, quipped, “POV: your boss seeing this, after you said it was too icy to come to work!” Elsewhere, the video made @bets069 recollect her grandma’s ice-walking experiments: “Grandma would always put bread bags over my boots and then socks over the bread bags. So I would stay dry and wouldn't slide.”

You can follow Jojo (@imliterallymexican) on TikTok for interesting vlogs.