Things like this just undesrcore the dangers of extended snowmobile seasons into warm weather. Read the full article from the Bangor Daily News.

 Basically the article is about a suspended search for a missing Connecticut snowmobiler.  The sled was found, but between high winds and thinning ice, the search had to be suspended for today. 

 The bigger point is that sledders really need to take care riding in early and late-season.  Another man drown a couple of weeks back when crossing water with an unexpected wide-open channel.  Even the warden who had gone by earlier that night said it was hard to tell in the dark that it wasn’t solid ice.

Sad situations all.  If you’re lucky enough to still be enjoying the nice, long snowmobiling season, please take care and stay off the water!

Forgive my absence, I’ve been nursing my 7 year old daughter back after having her tonsils and adenoids removed on Tuesday–a ‘routine’ ‘day surgery’; maybe for the doctors, but for a 7 year old in pain nothing is routine about cutting out a piece of your body, and I’m coming to firmly believe that no surgery should be a half-day ‘day surgery’ stay for a kid (and probably not for an adult either).

Anyway, here’s a great story about how women and snowmobilers are making a difference with our sport.

From American Snowmobiler

One of these days I’d love to be involved in something like this Pink Ribbon Riders Snow Run. 

Here’s a bit about the ride, which goes to support women battling breast cancer:

“The Snow Run is an organized snowmobile ride featuring different rider ability groups that are guided by trail leaders through the trails of Inlet and Old Forge, N.Y. More than 100 miles were trekked by groups divided into 10-12.”

Gifts were presented to two riders who are also breast cancer survivors, and the highest fundraiser was awarded too for her fundraising in excess of $6,000.  All in all, the 4th annual ride brought in more than $56,000!  Pretty impressive.

You can read about the ride at AmSnow by follwing this link, or you can go right to the PinkRibbonRiders website to learn more.

Let’s hope this post gets some more attention to a great snowmobiling cause so that maybe next year’s ride is even bigger and better!

Finally a Maine snowmobile accident story with a happy ending!

This story was in this afternoon’s Bangor Daily News. 

A New Hampshire man, his wife, and 12 year old daughter were riding the other night.  The father, apparently in the lead, became disoriented when snows turned to white-out conditions, and both he and his daughter (all on separate sleds), fell through thin ice on Lake Umbagog in Roxbury, Maine.  The daughter, thank God, got herself out quickly but the husband couldn’t make it out.  The quick-thinking wife took off her snowsuit and threw one end to her husband, and she and the daughter pulled him out to safety.  All three of them rode out on the one remaining snowmobile (the wife’s).  The man and wife were experiencing symptoms of hypothermia, but were able to reach a camp after 8 miles where they took shelter.

Read the full text here in the Bangor Daily News.

Wow!  Scary, but how smart?  Nice to hear something ending happy, and nice to hear that a 12 year old has the fortitude to keep it together in a perilous situation and save not only herself, but her Dad, too!  Somebody must be raising her right!

Glad to hear that all are OK.

Monday saw another snowmobiling fatality in Maine, this time a rider from Massachusetts who failed to negotiate a corner while riding at an “imprudent speed for conditions” (this coming from information in an article on Boston.com); that makes five (including the four over the weekend detailed in this post).  The situation, which brings the total for snowmobile-related deaths in Maine from the beginning of January to 9, has prompted the Maine Warden service to redirect their efforts “…toward snowmobile safety in the final weeks of the snowmobile season.”

 The Maine Warden Service has been fairly vocal over the past week, attempting to bring these incidences to light so that snowmobilers will remember to ride right and at reasonable speeds, ride defensively, and ride sober. As one representative is quoted as saying, “Snowmobiles are powerful machines, some reaching speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour and Maine trails simply are not designed for these high rates of speed…”  and sadly,  6 of these deaths were attributed to excessive speed (I believe one or two others were failure to stop at road crossings…more needless deaths).

The Maine Warden Service is stepping up patrols on snowmobile trails in an effort to prevent such deaths and warn that snowmobilers should expect to see more wardens on the trails in the last few weeks of the snowmobiling season.  I guess it remains to be seen whether this will really have the desired effect.

As a sledder, I think this also highlights a couple of facts–

•  Ours is a great but inherently dangerous sport, at least to a degree.  This won’t keep me from riding, but makes me a little more conscious of the fact, which is always good and I hope it spreads.
• You always have to be careful of others on the trail–even if you’re in control, there’s no guaranteeing the guy or girl around the next corner is.
• Careless riding and needless accidents draw negative attention to the sport, and increased policing of trails and riding….we all have seen how these things can end in our ever-increasing police states, so please, preserve the freedom of our sport by keeping it under reasonable control!

A sad state of affairs all around; what have you got to add to the discussion?