Here's How You Retrieve a Snowmobile That's Fallen Through a Frozen Lake

Pretty simple, right?

Photo by: Dexter Fire Department

By: Jonathon Klein

Jan 21, 2025 at 8:37am ET

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I grew up in the Midwest in a spot where, while snowmobiles were king of winter sports, they were routinely used as ways to get to your favorite ice-fishing spot, less the mountain shredding I know and love here in Utah.

But inevitably, each year someone would take their snowmobile out onto a lake or river too early or too late into the season and, you guessed it, fall straight through the ice. Honestly, it almost felt like a right of passage, as you'd just continually read about someone punching through too thin of ice and leaving their sled at the bottom of the lake, installing itself as a new artificial reef.

Yet, through all those news stories, as well as friends and family talking about those icy falls, I never knew how search and rescue actually recovered the snowmobiles. Honestly, I thought some were just left at on the lake bottom, while others had to wait until the ice fully receded.

I, however, was wrong on both counts, as the good folks over in Maine have illuminated the darkness on the retrieval process, which is decidedly lower-tech, and less complicated than I would've thought.

Photos by: Dexter Fire Department

Highlighted by the Bangor Daily News, the retrieval process occurred after a father and son who were piloting their snowmobile across Lake Wassookeag fell through the ice. The two people were fine, but according to the outlet, "The father, who was in his mid-50s, and his son, who was in his early 20s, entered the lake at the boat ramp and were heading across the middle to go ice fishing when their snowmobile suddenly went through the ice."

The ice conditions, according to BDN, have been fine in most places, but because of warm winds and temperatures, fragile in other spots.

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However, retrieving the sled wasn't all that different than removing the engine out of a car, as the local fire department cut a hole in the ice, set up a hoist, sent down a diver to attach the hoist's cables to the sled, and then pulled the whole thing up. According to the fire department's Facebook page, "There were a few hiccups along the way but the sled was back on the right side of the ice at 11:57. Greg [the scuba diver responsible for attaching the cables to the sled] certainly knows his stuff when it comes to recovering things from the cold waters, that’s for sure."

The hoist itself is made of wood, while a winch was attached to the middle and looks like something you'd get from Harbor Freight. Either way, considerably less complicated or difficult than I would've imagined, but pretty cool nonetheless.