A B.C. senior is hoping others learn from this close call. The 71-year-old was able to save himself after falling through the ice on Niskonlith Lake near Chase.
“It is a cautionary tale. It should never have happened,” said Peter Ballin.
It’s also a remarkable survival story. Now back at home in Vancouver, Ballin is speaking out about a close call he had a few days after Christmas when he went cross-country skiing alone on the lake.
“I was feeling very good and very happy for my first ski of the season,” recalled Ballin.
However, that good feeling evaporated about two kilometres from his cabin when he heard the ice crack and fell through into the frigid lake.
In the water up to his chest, Ballin recalled, “I was feeling that this was not good, I could die and I wasn’t about to.”
He used his arms and a ski pole to pull himself up on the ice. However, it kept breaking off.
He was somehow able to stay calm and said he didn’t feel cold at the time.
“I knew the danger. I wasn’t about to quit,” he said.
“I kept going. I didn’t feel like I was particularly exerting myself terribly much. Of course, I was, but the adrenaline masked that.”
After he got himself back on top of the ice, friends and family came to his aid with dry jackets. He even skied part of the way back to his cabin on the same pair of skis he was wearing when he fell in.
“I felt like once I was out, I had made it and I was feeling really good. What I didn’t realize is that the 20 minutes to get back, being soaked, in -9C wasn’t going to be so easy,” he said.
However, with help, he made it back to the warm cabin and eventually to medical care.
“I should have known better. It was definitely a mistake,” he said.
Ballin hopes others learn from his mistakes.
“Above all pay attention… I was feeling so good skiing along there. I know darn well that the lake doesn’t freeze uniformly, that it was thinner ice towards the middle and I just kept going.”
Shuswap Search and Rescue recommends those venturing out on the ice cut through and measure the thickness.
Schut cautions ice can vary widely even within a short distance.
“Not all ice is capable of being judged by its thickness especially if ice has slush on it or water on it. You want to be very careful about going on ice like that,” advised Schut.
Ballin’s story ended happily. Today, he is feeling no physical impacts, though he feels badly for putting his family at risk when they went out on the ice to help him.