TOWNSHIP 10 — A close call for an area man who had fallen into a frozen lake while ice skating had a happy ending thanks to the quick thinking and preparedness of a fellow skater on Jan. 12.
Courtney Keep of Northeast Harbor helped to pull the man, who wishes to remain anonymous, out of Spring River Lake, which is in Township 10 of Hancock County’s Unorganized Territories, near Tunk Lake.
The man had been Nordic skating on Spring River Lake with a larger group that included Keep when he fell through a thin patch of ice. Keep said there was no noise or cracking of ice, but that the man was simply gone.
“It was silent, there were no cracking sounds,” Keep said. “Just boom, straight down like a pencil, and the other people couldn’t even hear it.”
Keep said that while the lake had been frozen, fluctuating temperatures and strong sun that afternoon had caused the ice to become thin in some spots.
“The temp went up and the sun was shining, that must have created a weakness in that part of the ice; it wasn’t open water,” Keep said.
When the man fell through, Keep said he tried to haul himself back onto the ice using his ice claws, which are small ice pick tools that skaters carry with them on frozen bodies of water. Unfortunately, the thin ice kept crumbling away, rendering his ice claws useless.
“We all wear ice claws with two ice picks,” Keep said. “Not very effective in this case because the ice kept breaking as he was kicking. It wasn’t firm enough ice.”
Keep has not gone through any sort of ice rescue training but said that a simple piece of equipment made all the difference in what could have potentially been a life-or-death situation. Keep recently purchased a “Rescue Line,” which is a 25-foot length of cord in a travel-sized carry bag. This gave the man a lifeline with which to pull himself back onto solid ice, while Keep used herself as an anchor.
“It was my first time ever seeing someone go in the water and my first time pulling someone out,” Keep said. “I wedged my skates sideways so I wasn’t being pulled in so I could pull. They pulled the rope and I kept directing them. When they got flat, I pulled them off of what was thinner onto the thicker ice.”
Luckily for the man, the group was only about a 10-minute skate from where their cars were parked. He was able to get back to the cars and change his clothes quickly, and no medical attention was needed.
“They have a bruised shin and bruised shoulder,” Keep said. “No cuts. There’s awful things that can happen.”
Keep can only think about how things might have been if she had not been prepared for an accident. She said that one rope per group is not enough, and that if the person carrying the rope happens to be the one who falls through the ice, they may not be so lucky.
“For me it was the rope; everybody should have their own rope,” Keep said. “It’s not like you have a couple people who have it. Everybody should have their own.”
The ordeal has made Keep more cautious. She may take a safety course on how to properly handle falling into a frozen lake.
“I think now I’m going to try when you’re in a specialized area with people where you skate into the water,” Keep said.
Given the unseasonably warm weather and heavy rainfall this winter, the Maine Warden Service recently issued a warning about variable ice conditions, urging people to be cautious and always check the thickness of ice on frozen bodies of water.
“Ice conditions on many of Maine’s larger lakes are still unsafe, and even though smaller ponds may have ice, we are urging everyone to check the ice before heading out,” said Maine Warden Service Col. Dan Scott in a press release on Jan. 13. “There are waters with areas of safe ice, but ice conditions can vary even on the same body of water, so best practice is to bring along an ice chisel or some means of testing the depth of the ice and check it frequently as you walk to your location.”
Reporter Malachy Flynn covers news on the Schoodic beat, which includes the towns of Eastbrook, Franklin, Hancock, Sorrento, Sullivan, Trenton, Waltham, and Winter Harbor. He also reports on the town of Tremont on Mount Desert Island. He welcomes tips and about stories in the area.
