falling through ice!

yesterday 7 of us set out up the valle de lobos on snow shoes (raquettas).  ali-b chose to ski-tour and the beaver dam proved to much so he was left to entertain himself on the nearside of the river.  we set off for the refugio and were welcomed by the spanish military who had the potbelly burning inside and cleared a space for us to hunker down out of the wind and eat our lunch... the following is an excerpt from an email after leaving the refugio .....

we found a camp spot, then ross and i headed back down the wind blown valley, leaving the others to set up camp.  we crossed a big huge swamp rather nervously, ross put a crack right across the ice bridge for what seemed to span the entire swamp and each shelf moved independently of each other as i stepped across.  we fell through the ice toward the end, but was only shallow and the ice chunks managed to keep us mostly off the soft bottom.  we found the beaver crossing and parted company.  ross watched while i crossed back and stayed on the river bank to watch as i tried to cross the 2 dodgey ice bridges.  i had a walking pole, which i used to test the ice before me, it just kept getting softer and softer!  as i edged nearer to the far  bank more and more water was pooled on the surface of the ice.  I drove down on the pole to test the ice once more and went straight through!  at that point I could see that the ice was bubbled and soft right the way through to the water!  i knew i was standing too close but before i could step back a big chunk gave way underneath me, and i just kept falling further and further, all in slow motion it seemed?!  by the time i hit the bottom i was waist deep in stinging ice cold water!  my first thought was 'get out, now!'  my second thought was 'the camera!' i sort of flayed a bit and tried to gain traction forward to the far bank but the ice was being ripped away in front of me by the current, so i leant back on the ice behind me and hoisted myself up just praying it would hold me!  thankfully i got myself up and quickly scooted across the remaining part of the bridge to the other side.  i realised then that i'd dropped ross' pole, and tried to retrieve it.  i was conscious that i really needed to keep moving towards home to avoid getting too cold,  but i edged out to get the pole and once again the ice began to give way.  so i left the pole and carried on.  by the time i made it to the second bridge ross had come down to the first bridge - i'm not sure if he had better luck with the pole!  as i crossed i fell through again, but it was shallow and only one leg went through.  

i recovered myself and set back out aware that i now really needed to get back to shelter and warmth.  due to the melt it was difficult to retrace our steps an it felt at times like i was almost aimlessly wandering across the plain!  i knew which direction i needed to go in and that if the shit hit the fan i could always walk out to the road, so no big deal just a bother really!  i stopped and took a few pics of a rather cool bivy, but i don't think they'll be that great due to my wanting to keep moving so as not to cool off too much.  after about 40 mins i made it back to base where ali-b was waiting.  thankfully he had some dry clothes, so i quickly changed and the fire was burning, so we had a beer - one of the sweetest beers i've ever had!!

ciao

selai