Truth commission time

[Vince Rossano]

Folks,

 

I feel compelled to annotate my remarks about self-rescue, which I made on Wednesday. Specifically, about a swim I took on February 1, 2014.  And about recollection that is”less-than-vivid”. Marsha mentioning my camera brought the event in clearer focus. (Pun intended.) At least, it became clearer after I went back and checked my skating log for the day.

 

My stepson, Micum, and I skated together that day, launching from Button Bay around 11:30. (I’m amazed I actually got out on the ice before noon!)  It was a beautiful day, blue skies, black ice, and no wind.  Also, the temp was creeping up above freezing, which felt nice but, really, things were probably already getting a bit dicey.  Just beyond Button Island, we encountered Marsha and Ed assisting David Skidmore back to shore after he had fallen through an anomalous hole halfway out toward North West Bay. It might have been a bird hole that had iced over, but not thickly enough to support a skater. We were never sure. (Dave would not have needed assistance if he hadn’t lost one of his skates while trying to get himself out of the hole.  Reminder, once again:  always have some kind of traction devices with you to enable you to walk across ice when you have an equipment failure.)  So, his was dunking number one for the day.  At some point, a skater – unknown to me – went into the drink at the perennial crack between tiny Button Island and the point of land about 100 yards away at the north end of the bay.  I think that was swim number two.  And, you know, bad things happen in threes, so here we go:

 

Micum and I skated due north across to the Palisades to check out the spectacular ice falls that often form there.  The black ice on the lake shimmered in the sun – as did the open water, which I didn’t see because it, too, was black and, without a lick of breeze to ruffle the surface, shimmered in the sun.  I took some pix of the ice falls and we skated on. But I wanted to check my photos to be sure they looked as beautiful as I hoped they would.  The ice was clean and the skating was easy so I decided to review my photos while I skated. I tucked my poles under my arm and opened the previewer on my camera.  Skating blind.  Clever, huh?  Suddenly, Micum said “Whoa!” and jammed his poles to stop himself.  I looked up just in time to find I was in ankle-deep water,  which quickly became waist-deep water, which quickly became 200-foot-deep water.  I had skated onto a small, partially-submerged ice plate about 20-feet square, which had now become a fully-submerged ice plate.  I was swimming and my camera was headed to Davey Jones’ locker. 

 

What happened next has, over the intervening seven years, become subject to the Rashomon Effect.  Regardless of what actually occurred, in my mind, I developed the notion that I had quickly gathered my senses, identified the proper direction for exiting the water and then calmly executed an elegant breast stroke to extricate myself.  Tonight, I read the notes I made the day it all took place.  Mea culpa. Apparently, I was scared shitless.  Micum said something about my looking panicked. (I can’t believe it!) I did get out without assistance and without using ice picks, but it was a pretty wild scene of me flailing about to get back up on the ice.  Just as Jo experienced on Winnipesaukee, I could hear Micum offer assistance, but I never processed it; I just flailed away until I got back on deck.  According to my GPS, which billed it as a rest stop, I was in the water for 42 seconds. 

 

Then came the 7-mile skate back to our launch point.  I mentioned that 7-mile skate in my post on Wednesday.  Except it wasn’t seven miles; it was four and a quarter. I gained about .4 miles per year.  Actually, I gained it faster than that because I’ve been telling people for a number of years now about how I skated seven miles soaking wet.

 

Well, it wasn’t seven miles, but it WAS soaking wet. I own – and owned then – a dry suit. I even occasionally wear it.  To wit: the broad smile on my face in the photo Diana posted of me after my backflip dive on Mill Pond was made possible by the dry suit I was wearing at the time.  I was nice and warm and comfy after that swim.  On February 1, 2014, I was not so comfy.  My dry suit was carefully folded up in the back seat of my car.  Hey, why would I need a dry suit?  How could I fall in?  The ice was so thick and strong.  Right.

 

The takeaway from this excessively long missive is that you should never believe anything I say.  I have a number of ex-wives who will assure you of that.  J

 

Vince

 

 

 

 

[Mar...@ellawayinc.com]

How well I remember that day, Vince, for many reasons. It was an incredibly beautiful, sunny day where we were enjoying skating on parts of the lake that are so seldom skate able. We met you and Micum on your trip back from your swim.

There was a third swimmer, a woman who fell in at the pressure ridge between Button Island, and the northwest point of Button Bay. She and her husband made it back to their car ok

Marsha

[Tom Duca]

Vince mentions the skater who lost a skate while doing a wet exit.  This is a story we have heard before. 

Besides always carrying a  foot traction device, such as micro spikes, it is also possible to add a small and short clip-on leash, from your skate to your boot.  You will need to drill a small hole in the skates platform. Most hardware stores sell small self-closing carabiners.  The carabiner clips into the boots laces, or onto the boots gaiter ring.  (The rope leash cannot be long enough to skate over!)

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[Kevin Boyle]

I remember that day well and the whole season for that matter because it was perhaps the best year of ice since I've been wild skating. I bought a used pair of skates in 2007 which happened to be a year the broad lake froze. I didn't have nearly enough experience to take advantage of that rare ice but I came up to speed pretty quickly. In our talks during various outings Eric and I feared it would never get cold enough to freeze the broad lake ever again. Then came the 2014 season. The outing Vince described above happened after the largest freeze up I've seen so far. The lake caught from Stevenson Bay to and including Converse Bay in one night. A few days later it was 6" thick and Eric and I skated the whole thing in an out and back fashion. We disregarded the wind forecast that day and paid dearly on the last few miles to the Westport boat launch. During a subsequent outing we crossed from Charlotte to Essex repeating Tom's crossing in reverse. The broad lake then froze and was covered with snow. I received word that some wind trails existed north of Charlotte and we should give it a go. Four of us including Vince followed hard to navigate wind trails for miles until we accidentally stumbled upon an amazing plate of black ice around the four brothers island region that we later called the southern lead.

On Sat, Feb 20, 2021 at 9:01 AM mars...@vermontel.net <Mar...@ellawayinc.com> wrote:

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