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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.  

More on dogs and ice:

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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

 

In the mid afternoon of Saturday March 28, a  man drowned after breaking through the ice on Hall's Pond in Paris Maine.  A companion and a dog also fell through and were rescued by local rescue personnel. The victim was an avid Nordic skater who contributed greatly to the skating community in Maine and New Hampshire. He was 62.
He often hiked around the pond.  On Saturday they were on the trail on the far side and thought it might be OK
to walk home on the ice.  They found a fishing hole that showed that the ice was seven inches thick and decided the ice would be OK. 
The man broke through first.  He told the others to get away from him and go back to shore and call for help. A moment later everybody was in the water.  Getting out was impossible as the edges of the holes kept breaking.   
Someone on shore called 911.  The first responders were able get to the woman and the dog but they could not get to the victim before he submerged.  Rescue personnel said that the breakthrough were about 150 yards from shore.  They also said the ice was only an inch thick.  The typical adult break through thickness for cold is is a little over an inch. 
Spring ice can be treacherous, especially on shallow ponds which often melt from the bottom.
The weather at the time of the accident was around 50 degrees and it was cloudy. The previous night was clear and got to 30 degrees. This may have been enough  to harden the ice surface.  The ice surface was opaque white snow ice.   There are several possible reasons why the ice was so thin.  The opaque surface made it impossible to see most of them.   
It probably had a layer of hard ice in the morning.  It is likely the seven inch thickness at the fishing hole gave them the confidence to go onto the ice. The snow ice probably obscured any clues of of the thinness of the ice at the accident site.  The main lesson from this tragedy are:
  • 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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