Ryan and Christie
Me and Rachel on our way
All of us
Where I fell through the ice
The snowmobile hanging!
The three of us
Me and Christie
Me and Jason
We went up to Ryan and Christie's in Wyoming for my first snowmobile adventure. We almost didn't go because I had things I needed to get done with work...but we went anyway. Saturday morning we headed out for an all day ride - Ryan, Christie, Christie's Mom and Dad, Christie's Sister & friend, and then Jason, Rachel and me.
About 45 minutes into the ride (just as I was starting to feel confident) we were heading down a hill that had small bumps and a bridge at the bottom so we could cross the river. I gassed it a bit too much over the bumps and got off the trail into the powder and stopped so I wouldn't go down the hill into the river. I was about 7 feet away from the bridge. I waved Ryan over to help me get out of the powder and then the brilliant thought came to mind of Ryan's directions of how to get unstuck. Lean, keep giving it gas and you'll get out. Because I had already waved Ryan over to help me, I guess he was walking toward me from behind. At that moment, I cranked the handlebars to the left to get back on the trail while giving it spurts of gas. Once I was headed in the correct direction, I cranked it hard to the right and by mistake grabbed the gas. I got on the bridge but couldn't make the turn and both the snowmobile and I went off the opposite side of the bridge.
The only thing I remember was shutting my eyes, feeling the back of the helmet hit something hard (which was the ice on the top of the river) and then my body getting wet. I opened my eyes and saw that I was chest deep in the river water and wasn't sure if I was standing on the bottom of the river or a rock that was about to give way. Just like the movies I was grabbing at the ice with my gloves and had nothing to grab onto fearing if I slipped, I was going to go under the ice. The only thing I could reach was the 4 foot wall of snow that was originally the bank of the river so that didn't help. The next thing I see is Ryan running through thigh high snow yelling to me if I was ok. I just kept saying, "I can't get out." Ryan laid in the snow to extend his hand to me and we could barely reach each other. With one pull, he pulled me 4 feet up the snow bank. Ryan would tell you he is buff but it think pure adrenaline pulled 130 lbs of dead weight out of the water with one arm!
I then realized that the snowmobile hadn't crushed me like it should have and then pinned me under 3 feet of water. I turned around and saw the snowmobile hanging by one ski off the bridge which saved my life or saved me from doing time in the hospital. Also....this shows to always wear your helmet because if not, I would probably be in a coma or have brain damage because the back of my head is what hit the ice first and it was about an 8 foot fall. Overall, I pulled some muscles/bruised my ankle because it was caught in the foot spot on the snowmobile and when the snowmobile stopped and I kept going, my foot twisted and it hurt to walk on for quite a few days. I have a bruise the size of a grapefruit on my hip which is the second part of my body that hit the ice after my head hit first.
I am lucky to have walked away and yes...I rode the rest of the day (after having to take off every article of clothing because I was completely wet.) Luckily it was a nice sunny day and everyone had worn extra clothing so I borrowed pieces of clothing from everyone and just rode commando all day!
If you are wondering how they got the snowmobile back up for me to ride (and no, there was not damage to the snowmoblie either) I remember Ryan saying,"I'm waiting for any creative ideas to get this thing back up on the bridge without it crashing in the water." While I was peeling off wet clothes, Ryan and Cody (Christie's sister) went down on the ice and pushed up on the bottom ski while everyone else stood on the bridge with ropes or their hands pulling on what ever they could grab and they got it up! I wish I had gotten pictures of that but I was too woried about hypothermia at that point!
