Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Icy Plunge at Ida

Usually I would explore the ice fully before skating but not last week at Lake Ida - to my peril! - I just went off for a circuit and ended up skating into the only thin ice and going through.  I was wearing layered clothing and the cold shock was not as bad as I had imagined. With out thinking I turned back the way I had come and leaned on the ice while kicking my feet to keep my body up (wet through to nearly chest level). Leaning on the ice with my arms, the ice broke until I reached solid ice.  Then I used ice claws to pull myself up onto the surface. I was holding a camera on stick and ended up dropping it in the hole - water about 5m deep.  A skate back to base and a change of clothes!  Time seemed to go very slowly during this incident -  I was skating with others and they seemed to take forever to come closer.
At this stage I considered the camera lost but Dave (P) thought he could retrieve it.  Dave has been doing a bit of cold water swimming in ice to practice rescue techniques and he had his wet suit in the car.
He managed to successfully retrieve the camera with a rock and some rope!  Video below.  Thanks Dave!!  There is some great footage of Dave under the ice at the end..... beware if ever trying this!!

14 comments:

Ryan said...

Awesome video! Terrific to see Dave swimming right underneath where you are skating.

Clive said...

Great footage, this corner is the inlet to the lake from Little Lake Ida, that's why its thin, its very unusual to see the whole lake frozen, this corner is usually water....When we were there on Wed night we could see a change in ice texture as the last bit had frozen, so kept everybody away from the corner....good to hear that the ice claws did the trick...once again awesome footage.

Anonymous said...

Great footage!
Cheers Joe

Dave said...

Yep Clive - I remember that corner from years ago and normally would have checked everywhere first. Maybe I was a bit dazzled by the super clear ice and not looking properly! A good lesson for the though. Claws - yea!

Ryan said...

Pity the fall wasn't caught on camera. That would have been epic!

Feel like doing a reenactment some time?

Dave said...

yep Ryan shame I didn't have the camera running - can't say I am that keen to re-enact..... hmmm maybe with a wet suit and some help.......

Rob Mulders said...

Awesome video! I went down through the ice once, in Sweden, but I didn't go swimming after that. Did you easily see where the water hole was, while swimming under the ice? Whatching the video, it feels you returned to the hole by a good feeling for direction, instead of really seeing where to go?

A fall through the ice is called "plurrning" in Sweden. Because the lakes are big in Sweden, it can take a long time to get back to the car. We skate with dry clothes in a watertight canoe bag in our backpack. We fill the water tight bag with air, besides the clothes. In that way the backpack keeps your head and lungs above the water for a fair part. And we have the ice claws and a special easy-to-throw line ready. Another important "appointment" in the group, is to let the second man always keep good distance to the first. Because it gets dangerous when more than one person get in the water at the same time...

Dave said...

Hi Rod - thanks for the info - there are a couple of keen skaters here who use safety prep as you describe. Ice claws are essential if you are skating away from known safe areas - and a great safety device.
I though Dave P was very brave doing that swim without a rope - and he has said he would not do it again without a rope! There is a bit more video of him to come.

Ryan said...

I always take that sort of equipment when skating around Poolburn due to the shear size of it. It would be quite dangerous skating for 10 mins, falling through, then having to skate 10 mins back to the car to get changed; even worse if you are an hour from the car.

Thure Björck said...

Another problem can be to retrieve the car keys if the clothes get frozen. Besides that electronics in the key are destroyed so that the car wouldnt open or start. So keep the car keys dry.
Here in Sweden we mostly use a more sturdy pole than an ski pole to check the properties of the ice. There should also be extra buyoncy attached as peak of the pole is heavy. Here I got a remainder to check if my pole floats with my waterproof camera attached.

iDave said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
iDave said...

Thanks Thure - had not thought about the car keys until this happened and will make sure they are in a water proof packet next time. The ski pole has a special heavy spike on it for ice testing but we use other poles as well. The ski pole at this time was being used as a boom cam.
Flotation - a good idea and will use for next year.

Anonymous said...

Action photo of a swim about to happen;
http://www.skridsko.net/skridskonet/bild/bild-v.asp?ID=79549

Dave said...

wow - good shot!
What happened next?

Thanks

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