Derby danger: Safety officials nervous about ice conditions

MEREDITH — Clarence Williams has been fishing Meredith Bay for 35 years. He’s seen years with good ice, and years when the ice is not so good.

“This year is one of the bad ones, there’s only eight inches out there,” Williams said, as he pulled a sled containing his auger and tackle out onto the fresh snow covering the bay on Thursday morning.

The thin ice was also on the mind of Randy Sherman, of Loudon, who said he’s been participating in the Great Meredith Rotary Fishing Derby for 30 years. He usually fishes off Leavitt Beach in Meredith, which in good years has enough ice for him to drive his vehicle out to his bob-house. This year, he said he’ll park on solid ground, and drag a lightweight, portable shelter out to his fishing spot.

“You’ve got to be careful for sure,” Sherman said, adding that he plans to follow in other people’s footsteps, and check ice thickness as he goes.

That’s music to the ears of Col. Kevin Jordan with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. He said his organization has “some real concerns” about safety on Lake Winnipesaukee, with the fishing derby taking place this weekend.

Jordan has reason to be concerned. He had seen this movie before, and he didn’t like its ending.

In 2017, the fishing derby, which draws thousands of people to compete or just to take in the carnival-like atmosphere of the ice fishing competition, opened with classic ice fishing conditions: temperatures just above zero, with fresh snow blanketing Lake Winnipesaukee. Many people arrived in town just for derby weekend, and nothing from the scene in front of them told them that, just four days earlier, there was open water in many parts of the lake. A cold snap arrived just in time to form a thin layer of ice, which was then hidden by a fresh snowfall. Despite efforts by safety officials to broadcast the message that the ice was unsafe, three people died that weekend: two adult males and a teenage boy, in two separate incidents. They were all snowmobiling on Lake Winnipesaukee.

This year’s forecast is eerily similar. Many parts of Lake Winnipesaukee are unsafe, though it will be impossible to tell, just by looking.

“This sets the stage for what happened a few years ago, we had poor ice and the snow covered it,” Jordan said. “I’m really concerned about it.”

“We all know there are parts of the big lake, Winnipesaukee, that were open two and a half weeks ago,” said Ken Jones, fire chief in Meredith. He worked with organizers of the recent New England Pond Hockey Classic to limit on-ice activities so that the thousands of hockey players and spectators could safely enjoy a weekend of play. But the hockey was limited to a finite area, one where they knew there was enough ice to support people, if not vehicles, structures and even firepits, as it often is at this time of year. The fishing derby allows participants to fish wherever they like, on any lake or pond in the state.

If tradition is any guide, most of those anglers will be on Winnipesaukee.

“My words of wisdom, as you venture out there, you should know what you’re on,” Jones said. He, like many other safety officials, urged that people going out on the lake test the ice for thickness. “I question how much ice there is in some of those locations… it’s certainly not eight inches all around the lake. If I was going out, I’d be cautious about what’s under my feet.”

In Moultonborough, where two of the deaths took place in 2017, Fire Chief David Bengsten said the quality of the ice, as well as the thickness, should also be taken into account. “We’re finding conditions vary in spots,” he said. Parts of the lake that were sheltered from the wind earlier this winter now have thicker sheets of ice, but other stretches of the lake were kept open by wind until more recently.

Bengsten said the conditions for growing ice this winter have been “less than ideal.” It was cold enough for the ice to start, then there was some rain, followed by snow, and back and forth. As a result, what should be mid-winter ice now looks in places like springtime ice, white and gray, indicating that it’s not as strong as clear ice.

“That’s really what it comes down to this year, the quality of the ice as well as the thickness,” Bengsten said.

This would be a good year to exercise precautions, he said. Wear or bring a flotation device, or a rope that can be thrown to someone who falls through. Bring ice picks that can be used to pull yourself out of the water and back onto the ice. And, don’t put yourself in the position where there’s no one to help you.

“They should go with another person. At least, tell someone where they’re going to be fishing, and take a cell phone with them,” Bengsten said.

In fact, many of the calls that they respond to on the lake don’t have anything to do with weak ice, he said. “Over the years, we’ve seen more injuries of people falling on the ice,” Bengsten said. Traction devices, sometimes called “creepers,” slip onto the bottom of boots to bite into the ice. A helmet will prevent head injuries from a fall, and warm clothing will guard against hypothermia if an injury keeps someone out on the lake longer than they expected.

“Generally being prepared to go out there,” Bengsten said. “And if you’re going to be drinking alcohol, moderate. You are going to be exposed to wind, stay hydrated out there. If you’re not taking care of yourself, you could run into an exposure problem.”

Preparation

The good news is that emergency responders are now better prepared than they were in 2017. The Mark O’Connell Foundation for Lake Winnipesaukee Safety, founded by one of the families that lost a loved one three years ago, has donated a hovercraft to the Moultonborough Fire Department. Alton now has a hovercraft, too.

Bengsten said he hasn’t yet had to deploy the hovercraft for an ice rescue, though it was used in March of last year to ferry firefighters across unsafe ice to a blaze on Bear Island. He said that fire departments around the lake have been training to effect ice rescues, with this particular weekend in mind.

“We’re prepared, we do ice rescue reviews at the beginning of the year, as soon as we get ice. All of our crews have been out doing (ice) training,” said Kirk Beattie, Laconia's fire chief. “We don’t anticipate any problems, but as anything we try to be ready.”

“I know that the emergency folks have really prepared,” said Heidi Barrett-Kitchen, chair of the Meredith Rotary Club’s derby committee. She said advance ticket sales are on pace for about an average year for participation, which means around 5,100 competitors. But many people will come just to fish and won’t buy a ticket. Conversely, not everyone who buys a ticket will drop a line through the ice somewhere. Now in its 41st year, the derby has allowed the Rotary Club to make more than $2.2-million in charitable efforts.

“Obviously, people’s safety is our top concern,” Barrett-Kitchen said. “We don’t do any certification regarding the ice at all, that’s up to the individual to use caution.”

Despite the warnings, Barrett-Kitchen pointed out, the event remains a family-friendly affair, with free kids’ fishing clinics held at 10 and 11 a.m., and at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. on Saturday.

“It’s a great, fun event, we hope people will enjoy the day, enjoy the event and have fun,” Barrett-Kitchen said.

Jordan said, “We want people to have fun, we just don’t want to have what we had that one winter. We don’t want to go through that again.”