John_Mc<<<<<<<< How did you get out of the water, did you splash water like your fire department friend said and what is the Rock Bar you used, pick ax? What ever it is must require labor intensive work to stay warm in 15* temp.
Human error. Lets help others deal with the pain of their mistakes by listing our.
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D2Cat
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Oldpath05, look at his last picture. It is shown stuck in the snow!
John_Mc
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When I rolled off the tractor (I still have problems calling this thing a "tractor"), I rolled onto the ice next to the hole. My legs dropped in from about mid-thigh down, but I kept the rest of my body horizontal, spread out on as much ice as I could. Since I rolled toward the shore, the ice was thicker there - it had already supported me and the tractor on previous laps. There were some cracks, and it was not as strong as the ice even closer to shore, but it was enough to hold me. I ended up wet all over, since there was plenty of water on top of the ice. However, the only part of me that was soaked through was from mid-thigh down.
If you look at the thumbnail photo where I was lying on the ladder (a precaution to spread my weigh and avoid breaking through again), when I first rolled off, my feet were probably about where my head or shoulders are in that picture. My head was probably on the ice just above where the sticker is on the ladder to my left.
I did not need to use my fireman friend's technique. That's really an "if all else fails, you just can't get out of the water, and are risking passing out and going under". It doesn't get you out, it just keeps you from submerging. You may die of hypothermia, but you are not likely to drown. It's just a way of buying time until help comes.
The keys, as my friend explained them:
- Don't go out on ice you are not sure of in the first place (duh!)
- If the ice cracks, try to avoid going through: get horizontal (spread eagle on the ice) to spread the load and slither or roll away, keeping as much contact with as much ice as possible.
- If you do beak through, try to prevent your head from going under. Spread your arms and try to keep them on top of the ice or tread water to keep your head up.
- Don't try to climb out of the water. Put your hands up on the ice, kick your feet to get horizontal, then keep kicking and pulling with your arms as you try to "swim" onto the ice. The swim turns to a slither the more of you is out of the water.
- Avoid putting a lot of weight on one or a few spots until you know you are in a solid area (i.e. don't stand up or push up on your hands too soon.) Remember, if you got wet, you now weigh significantly more than you did on the way out to where you broke through, plus the ice may have been compromised in areas surrounding where you broke through.
Your body has a shock response to the cold. That response can cause a gasp (a real problem if your head is underwater at the time). It can also cause you to tense up and breathe erratically. The first thing is to relax, control your breathing, and allow yourself to get acclimated. This is not a situation where you have only seconds to live. You have time to deal with this.
TLDR: This 96 second ice self-rescue video is brief, but does a good job of explaining and demonstrating the proper technique.
