Granular, fresh-water ice was deformed at −40°C at 10−3 s−1 under confinement. Loading was applied such that confining stress, σ2 and σ3, were equal to each other and proportional to the highest stress, σ1; i.e. σ2 = σ3 = Rσ1. Two regimes were evident. At lower confinement, the fracture stress, σ1f, increases markedly as R increases. At higher confinement, σ1f increases less sharply. The transition occurs at about R = 0.15. Wing cracks were seen in the ice fractured within the low-R regime. The data are analyzed in terms of the frictional crack sliding-wing crack mechanism of brittle compressive fracture.