Anybody have some good ideas for extracting yourself from water onto an ice shelf along shore?

I'm an avid year-round canoer/kayaker and some like-minded friends who live up north have recently decided that they need to start carrying two home-made "ice picks", each consisting of a stout nail or two fixed into a 2-3 foot board. The theory is that if they capsize on a river where both banks are lined with ice shelves, they can use the boards to pull themselves out of the river onto the ice.

I don't have any experience with ice extraction, but I wonder if that's not overkill. The winter paddler's survival kit is already pretty bulky as it is, so I don't see adding to it unnecessarily. Also, I'm afraid many people would tend to forget to find and untie the ice picks before swimming to shore in the confusion of a capsize in icy water.

We all generally carry some type of rescue knife attached to our PFDs anyway - would a knife in hand give you enough purchase to pull yourself out of the ice soon after you went in? How about 2 knives, one in each hand? Is there any other compact gear that could be routinely carried in a PFD pocket to help pull yourself out of the water onto an ice shelf?

A knife may be difficult to grasp if you are wearing paddling gloves and would probably cut you when trying to pull ourself out.

Take a look at these ice picks:

http://www.nordicskater.com/safety.html

around here ice fisherman use short lenghts of broom stick with a sharpened nail on the end and a eyelet on top that a cord is tied around..the cord go's around the back of you neck--outside your jacket and the stick bits with corks on the nail go's into the pockets--then the same thing..drive the gizmos into the ice and pull your self out...these are common and a plastic version can be bought at sports shops--

Great thread guys. Thanks for the tips!

Up in Ontario, Canada, where we go snowmobiling over frozen lakes, something like this this is popular

Seems much lighter than what you are talking about.

Knives don't stick into ice well.
You are also looking at the problem of getting them out and the risk of cutting your hand open when you attempt to stab them through the ice.

Better is a couple of good sized pieces of dowel.
About as big around as a broom or shovel handle and long enough to fit your hand well, about five inches long is good.
You drill a hole into the end length ways and put a hard nail into them.
It only needs to poke out about an inch or so, maybe an inch and a half, if it is too long it will just bend or break.
The hole you pre-drill for the nail is just to prevent splitting the dowel when you drive the nail into it.
If the hole is bigger than the nail you can epoxy the nail into it too.
Most people cut the nail head off and sharpen them a bit, they don't have to be super needle sharp though.

To prevent losing them drill another crosswise hole in the other end. Then run a string through your sleeves and across your shoulder just like you were going to tie mitts on and tie the ice picks to it.
You can likely tuck them just inside the cuffs of your sleeves while paddling, but make sure they stay easy to get out of your sleeves. (maybe leave enough string hanging out to grab.)

You might be able to tie them to a vest.
They are not very bulky.
Really just two round sticks about 4 or 5 inches long with short nails sticking out one end of them.
The main thing is to keep them easy to reach.

The idea is to hold them in your fist and slam them into the ice like a hammer blow.
They should give you enough of a grip to pull yourself out onto the ice and slide yourself towards shore like a seal does, until the ice is thick enough to crawl on and then to walk on.

(Don't hurry to stand up on the ice. Wiggling and crawling is better than falling through thin ice. It would be very bad to fall through the ice after getting out once)

If the ice is really thin at the edge you might end up breaking it off until you get to where it is thick enough to hold the nail when you punch it through the ice.

(to bad this is unlikely to practiced before you really need to do it. If you can get close to thin ice safely practice punching the nails through it. You will find out how thick it has to be to hold a nail)

I just found a video that might help explain it a bit more.

self rescue

The primary thing is to remember to swim towards the shore as you are getting out of the water. Stay flat and continue to belly crawl until you are well clear of the hole. One of the other threads mentioned Les Stroud. He did an episode on this exact topic. The episode was a controlled experiment. He was working with an expert in this area. It was a very good episode. When he fell in the water you could see actual, no kidding panic in his eyes. Look for it somewhere. Well worth watching. BTW, he didn't use ice picks.

I spend a lot of time on the ice working and playing each winter.

I have extracted myself after falling through the ice a few times, both in training and for real.

Ice picks make it much easier to get out of the hole onto solid ice. I carry a commercial set of quick-release ones around my neck whenever I am snowmobiling across the ice. Be sure to get the picks that float (some don't) and that have long points (about 2 inches) as the short tipped ones do not dig into punky ice well.

I often see sledders with the picks mounted on their snowmobile, but I wear mine so I know that when I fall through they will be with me.

When we were kids we used to carry large spike nails in out pockets to do the same task.

I also keep a rope throw-bag around the handle-bars of my snowmobile to rescue other people when they go through the ice.

Mike.

I'm pretty sure there are a couple old threads on the subject... here is a great YouTube video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysnKtuUTt8k

Steve

took a swim here one very cold winter day a few years ago.


this photo was taken weeks later after it "warmed" up and there was some water on the ice shelf.this is the Mississippi River at South Minneapolis not far from from home where there is a free run dog park.while our back was turned our dog went out on the ice...you can see lots of dog prints around the edge. she was new to us from a dog rescue group and wanted to explore everything..we turned to see her in the water up to her neck and struggleing to get back up on the shelf.i knew if we lost that dog my wife would be heart broken.i also knew that the ice was over a shallow--hip deep--sandbar.sooooo---
i belly flopped out on the ice and pushed off. i could not grab her collar so i busted the ice with my fist so she could swim
too me..at that point the ice around me busted and i ended up on a surfboard of ice..well between her struggeling and swimming and me grabing and pulling we got to a point where i was only about six feet from shore so i stood up in hip deep water and we both floundered to shore--with my wife calling and shouting for the dog to come to her...someone ran up and offered to call 911 but i thought it would be best to make a fast walk back to the car for the five minute drive home..
i had short felt lined boots,jeans with snowboarder pants over them..flannel shirt,poly fluff pull over,down vest and a 60/40 parka..the temps were around zero..i walked fast with my heart pounding and by the time i got to the car 20 minutes later the jacket was froze stiff. i had to use my wifes mitts because mine were wet and froze in minutes..the dog had ice over its fur..at home we both got in a hot shower--the dog just lay in the tub while i pulled off the wet clothes under the shower..i spent alot of time in there warming up and had a long nap. if this had taken place anywhere else i would of had a big problem..in a more remote place a fast big fire would have been my only chance.so if you think about self rescue thats only half the problem.you better have a way to make lots of heat--very fast--