#294674 - 01/24/20 11:26 PM
Snowmobiler finds family of 5 stuck in wilderness
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Veteran
Registered: 12/14/09
Posts: 1418
Loc: Nothern Ontario
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Although the exact details on how this family came to be stranded in the frozen wilderness is not confirmed, it seems the family may have been using their cellphone as their navigation, which is not always reliable. Phil Waldner wasn't expecting to come across a stranded family of five when he went out for a snowmobile ride in rural Manitoba after Christmas last month.
The Steinbach, Man., resident was on a trail near Whitemouth Lake, which is nearly 130 kilometres southeast of Winnipeg, when he saw car tracks, which seemed odd.
"It was about 15 or 16 kilometres in when I came upon the car that had broken through the ice, and in the car there was an elderly gentleman and two young children," Waldner said.
"They were huddled up in blankets trying to keep warm and I asked them, 'What in the Sam Hill are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?' and they said they're going to Toronto.".https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/family-rescued-snowmobile-manitoba-1.5439399
_________________________
Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.
John Lubbock
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#294676 - 01/25/20 12:31 PM
Re: Snowmobiler finds family of 5 stuck in wilderness
[Re: Teslinhiker]
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Sheriff
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 12/03/09
Posts: 3821
Loc: USA
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Sounds like this snowmobiler did a lot of things right: - situational awareness (saw the tire tracks and knew they didn’t belong there)
- prioritized well (saved the parents as his top priority, then got everyone warm)
- knew the area (brought them to an emergency warming shelter)
- had the right gear (wearing layers so that he could share, had a SEND or a PLB)
Impressive!
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#294677 - 01/25/20 04:15 PM
Re: Snowmobiler finds family of 5 stuck in wilderness
[Re: chaosmagnet]
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Geezer
Registered: 06/02/06
Posts: 5357
Loc: SOCAL
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Yep, that was a nice save. You’d like to believe every snowmobiler who goes long in the Canadian wilderness would have that knowledge, SA and equipment, but it’s possible this family was saved by an exception.
It’s back to the idea we’ve discussed many times before. How many emergencies start off with someone getting lost? Navigating with a cellphone in Manitoba??? WTF? That nav tactic works while walking in urban areas where the only thing you need to worry about is tripping on an open manhole cover or stepping in dogs**t, but using one for driving off-road in Manitoba in winter?? Did they even realize they were off-road? Again, WTF.
Okay, those thoughts are from someone who uses a dedicated GPS receiver (one without a cell receiver) to calculate ETA’s while driving, paper maps and has been known to use a sextant. But the idea of blindly following GPS directions just put a thought in my head regarding filters for even a dedicated vehicle GPS (like my Garmin Nuvi receiver). I have mine set up for driving primarily on highways and prioritize time over distance. But I wonder if a filter could be used to remove roads that are not serviced in winter... I’m sure it could.
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#294678 - 01/25/20 04:17 PM
Re: Snowmobiler finds family of 5 stuck in wilderness
[Re: Teslinhiker]
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Crazy Canuck
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 02/03/07
Posts: 3219
Loc: Alberta, Canada
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A big tip o' the hat to Phil Waldner. Well done sir!
This could have easily been a recovery. It's a classic cascade of small decisions and errors that almost led to tragedy.
A brief rant: No basic gear in the car for being stranded in a Canadian winter? Relying on a cell phone for navigation in areas known to have spotty/no reception? Three adults in the car and no-one looked out the window and said "This doesn't seem right, let's turn back!"? No basic gear to get the vehicle unstuck (it doesn't look bad to me). Walking out in sneakers? ARGH!
Glad everyone is safe, and hopefully a hard lesson learned. It's a reminder that your planning, skills, and gear may well be used to save someone else.
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#294684 - 01/26/20 01:58 AM
Re: Snowmobiler finds family of 5 stuck in wilderness
[Re: chaosmagnet]
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Crazy Canuck
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 02/03/07
Posts: 3219
Loc: Alberta, Canada
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Particularly in unfamiliar areas, I’m not even a tiny bit embarrassed to declare an “abort” and turn the car around to get back onto the pavement. I begin to think this is a learned skill. After you have been turned around enough times, you don't take it as a personal failure to say "Ah stuff it, this route isn't working out; I don't know where I am but I know where I've been, so back I go, and I'll re-calibrate from there."
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#294685 - 01/26/20 02:35 AM
Re: Snowmobiler finds family of 5 stuck in wilderness
[Re: Teslinhiker]
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Crazy Canuck
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 02/03/07
Posts: 3219
Loc: Alberta, Canada
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A thought exercise, everyone: I was looking at the photo from the news story, and speculating how to use the resources at hand to improve the situation. Assume, for a moment, we were riding in someone else's vehicle and asleep in the back when navigation went sideways. Now, here we are. What do you think?
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#294689 - 01/26/20 03:53 AM
Re: Snowmobiler finds family of 5 stuck in wilderness
[Re: chaosmagnet]
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Geezer in Chief
Geezer
Registered: 08/26/06
Posts: 7705
Loc: southern Cal
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This is a pretty good example of why you should always have a shovel in your vehicle.
_________________________
Geezer in Chief
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#294690 - 01/26/20 04:00 AM
Re: Snowmobiler finds family of 5 stuck in wilderness
[Re: Teslinhiker]
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 04/28/10
Posts: 3152
Loc: Big Sky Country
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Yeah, the flip-flop winch would be a good option provided you had a tow/recovery strap and a few tools (a saw would be helpful, a shovel doubly so). I do need to get a recovery strap!
I do keep enough stuff in my car to survive at least a week in the wilderness in very cold temps; that's a week before things even got uncomfortable! Partly it's due to growing up in the midwest where huge blizzards are commonplace, and partly due to me being an avid outdoorsperson.
_________________________
“I'd rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that can't be questioned.” —Richard Feynman
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#294694 - 01/26/20 03:59 PM
Re: Snowmobiler finds family of 5 stuck in wilderness
[Re: Teslinhiker]
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Crazy Canuck
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 02/03/07
Posts: 3219
Loc: Alberta, Canada
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Good ideas!
I had never heard of a "flip-flop winch" before. Brilliant! Though it looks like a two-person operation to me.
1) Vehicle Recovery:
I agree with Chaos -- jack up the vehicle. Try to build a platform under the wheels. Break up the "chock" behind each wheel.
Unfortunately, even with a good shovel or a pickaxe, frozen soil is really difficult to chop through. A beater hatchet or ripping hammer can work well. I suppose the tire iron could be used as a crude chisel. It would take a lot of force and patience. Watch out for the sidewall of the tire!
I'll bet the vehicle has all-season tires (which really means three-season; bloody awful in winter). One trick is to drop the tire pressure to increase flexibility and traction.
2) Staying Warm:
I see a lot of dry grass ready to be harvested. Excellent insulation! Stuff it between layers of clothing (it's scratchy). Pile it in the vehicle. It's messy, but at this point who cares? You can detail it later.
3) Water and Fire:
Dehydration is insidious in the cold: you don't feel thirsty but it messes with your reasoning and your body's ability to stay warm and metabolize fats (most of us have a small surplus).
There is a lot of standing dead spruce in the background. The vehicle offers options for starting a fire. I guess it's possible to melt snow indirectly in a glass or plastic drink container, but far from ideal.
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#294695 - 01/26/20 07:28 PM
Re: Snowmobiler finds family of 5 stuck in wilderness
[Re: dougwalkabout]
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Geezer
Registered: 06/02/06
Posts: 5357
Loc: SOCAL
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First, unless I had some reason to be on lesser traveled roads, my GPS would be keeping me on main roads where at the very least a snow plow might find me (hopefully without tossing me off the road). If I were (not in my right mind and) intentionally driving the backroads of Manitoba, the kit in my truck would do okay. My winter kit would be integrated (adding my parka, boots, heavier gloves and additional wool clothing). The shovel, axe and bow saw are already part of the kit. The flip-flop winch suggestion is good. Thers’s a YouTube for that... Off Grid Winch: Making a Flip Flop Winch : Question: What weight line would be recommended for fabricating the winch? A dedicated tow strap is probably overkill.
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#294702 - 01/27/20 02:46 AM
Re: Snowmobiler finds family of 5 stuck in wilderness
[Re: Teslinhiker]
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Crazy Canuck
Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 02/03/07
Posts: 3219
Loc: Alberta, Canada
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Another trick for getting unstuck: turn off the vehicle's traction control. There is a button on many vehicles. While it's a great system for preventing a skid at higher speeds, it does so by removing power from the wheels. Sometimes you need those wheels to spin a little and chew through the crud to get you moving.
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#294704 - 01/27/20 03:54 AM
Re: Snowmobiler finds family of 5 stuck in wilderness
[Re: chaosmagnet]
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Veteran
Registered: 12/14/09
Posts: 1418
Loc: Nothern Ontario
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It certainly should be strong enough, and 50’ seems like a good length. I might get that myself.
Edited to add: Make sure you have some way to connect it to your vehicle. That synthetic winch rope in the Amazon link from Russ is not the one you want. That rope has a thimble (buckle) on one end and probably has a flat connector on the other end to attach to the winch. What you want is a synthetic rope extension that has a thimble on each end like this one. https://www.amazon.com/Astra-DepotS-Extension-Synthetic-Stainless/dp/B07MG8RVCX As most newer vehicles do not have many to tow point options, an axle strap or 2 is very handy, but first make sure you know where you can attach to your vehicle axle or frame. https://www.amazon.com/Keeper-Original-Version-04228-Premium/dp/B00I5HRTU4To tie everything together, use a shackle - but you first need to know the max diameter of the above rope thimble. Hard to tell in the images, but looks like it may accept at least a 5/8 inch shackle pin such as this one. https://www.amazon.com/Fuzbaxy-Shackle-Threaded-Rigging-Vehicle/dp/B07PXW94G6.Another option is a Clevis hook. https://www.amazon.com/Curt-Manufacturing-81560-Safety-Capacity/dp/B000LOLX2ESo the setup would be: Axle strap on vehicle>>>Shackle or Clevis hook>>>synthetic rope. I run a very similar setup, but use recovery straps as the synthetic rope is meant only for winching / straight pulls and not to be used as a stretchable / jerking recovery strap. Above all, practice, practice before using in an emergency.
_________________________
Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.
John Lubbock
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#294707 - 01/27/20 04:53 AM
Re: Snowmobiler finds family of 5 stuck in wilderness
[Re: Teslinhiker]
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Geezer
Registered: 06/02/06
Posts: 5357
Loc: SOCAL
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Good catch. Dual connectors/thimbles is a better option. I may look into getting a dedicated tow strap too. More pricey, but as you indicate, for actual towing, that light line would not be as durable and they always fail at the worst possible time.
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