27 December 2014

Snowmobiling across lakes in the dark is inherently dangerous

Two men drowned in Seeley Lake yesterday when their snowmobiles either broke through the ice or zoomed into open water. A third man survived a hypothermic dunking.

They were trying to cross the lake after dark, following dinner in one of Seeley Lake’s eateries. Whether they also drank alcoholic beverages was not addressed in early reports; we’ll know more when the investigation is completed and the official report is released.

This accident should raise red flags for other snowmobilers:

1. Crossing lakes and rivers in the dark is inherently dangerous, especially on a snowmobile. A skier receives auditory cues from his passage — the crunch and scrape of the snow, the cracks and booms of the shifting ice — but the snowmobiler hears only his engine. Even with a full moon, visibility is limited.


2. Three snowmobiles apparently sank in open water at virtually the same moment, suggesting they may have been advancing abreast of each other instead of traveling single file with plenty of space between the machines.

This tragedy probably will be deemed an error in judgment.