February 24, 2021 I have stopped reporting mortality data starting with the 2020 season
April 13, 2020
This page is the annual morality report on recreational ice users. It is based mostly reports on the www. The page will be visible while it is being built, spell checked and proof read.
As we can see from previous reports many of us that have spent sbstantial many of us have broken throuigh and survifed. Just based on www breakthrough reports out number www fatality reports by roughly 10.
The focus here is mostly about ice conditions however the role decisions comes into play in most accidents. Decisions about where you go, how you go and what tools and skills to you bring with you have a big effect on outcomes.
November 28, 2019: Meyers CA (near South Lake Tahoe) , Baron Lake. A 39 year man and three dogs fell into the water (probably a dog first). The man died an the dogs apparently self rescued.
The large number of successful dog rescues in the 2020 season suggests that first responders are quite a bit more more effcidtive than pet owners trying to rescue their pets. The most important thing you can do is call 911 before anything else. It also appears the '911 first' approach may be catching on.
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January 5, 2020, 3AM. Nokokmis, WI, Lake Nokokmis. Three snomobilers went on the lake and all broke through. One self rescued and called 911. The victims were men, 27 and 31.
Locals reported that this part of the lake was often thin or open as there is a river inlet there. Officials reported that trails on this part of the lake were closed for poor ice condidtions. Pictures of the ice show large ares of sark slush.
Flotation, claws, local knowlege and daytime probably would have changed the outsome.
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January 22, 2020: Carteret NJ, Pond in Carteret
Park:
A 15 year old boy fell though weak ice. He did not survive The afternoon temp was about 38 and sunny. The late January sun is significanltly stronger than than a month earlier.
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January 23, 2020: East Brunswick NJ: 5 PM
A 13 year boy fell through weak ice. He did not survive, The temperature was about 43 degrees
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January 24, 2020 Monksville NJ, Monksvile Reservoir
A 54 yearl old fisherman borke through the ice on the resevoir.. It was 50 degrees. The ice in the pictures looked like it was a little over an inch and it is likely to haved weakened by the temperagture (and the sun??)
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February 21, 2020, Star Lake, WI. A rider in a group missed a turn off a lake and hit a tree. He was 38.
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February 22, 2020, Little Germain Lake, WI.
A 38 year old snowmobiler ran on the lake but not on an official trail. He hit a tree on the shore of the lake.
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February 25, Muskegon MI, Lake Michigan
A 31 year old man walked out on the splash-out formations that grows on big, cold and windy lakes. He was trying to get a better view of the sunset. He broke through and drowned. These attractive ice features have been the scene of many accidents. Impulse kills many people.
The three days leading up to the accident had peak temperatures in the low 40's and average termperatuers gave 17 thaw degree days.
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March 18, 2020, Korth Lake WI. A 30 year old woman was riding a snomobile on the lake and she ran into trees along the shore.
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March 28, 2020, Paris Maine, Hall's Pond
- Stay off the ice or prepare to go through: advice from Thermophysiologist Gordon Giesbrecht. A test pole probably would have found the weak ice. Ice claws may have made self-rescue possible. A throw rope would have rescuing others easy. Flotation would have given rescue personell much more time to get to get to all of them.
- Spring ice often presents conditons that are skatalbe in the morning and are trecherous in the afternoon.
- January and February have the most fatalities but March and April more dangerious with the strong sun and warmer temperatures.
- Thawed opaque ice (and particularly snow ice) is hard to read, especially without test poles.
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