As Claire Dobbs drove a snowmobile onto a nearly frozen lake in northern Wisconsin with Natalie Funk last winter break, she had no idea her life would soon be in danger.

“I started driving toward the edges [of the lake] with Natalie. I then saw loose and cracked ice in front of me and by that time it was too late to turn around,” Dobbs, senior, said.

The snowmobile that Dobbs was driving had a wide turn range, so she was unable to maneuver away from the cracked ice. Funk, senior, also noticed that something was very wrong.

“I was nervous the whole time, because I had never been on a frozen lake. Then, all of a sudden, I saw a puddle of water in front of us. In slow motion, we started falling down into the water,” Funk said.

Getting stuck in freezing water was not the only thing they had to worry about. They
were still dangerously close to the snowmobile. Dobbs and Funk had to jump into the water so they would not get trapped.

“I was afraid that since Claire was in the front, and the whole entire snowmobile was going to fall on top of her. If either one of us got stuck on the snowmobile, it would have taken us down because it weighed so much,” Funk said.

Since Dobbs and Funk were wearing 40 pounds of wet snow gear, it was nearly im- possible to get out of the water.

“There was floating ice all around us in the most freezing water I’ve ever been in, and it was all pure adrenaline,” Dobbs said. “I was trying to get up, but every time I put my hand on the ice, the ice fell down be- cause of how much weight was on me.”

After attempting to get out of the water about five times, Dobbs was exhausted.

“If one more hand fell, I didn’t think I would be able to get up because I was get- ting so tired,” Dobbs said. “I was finally able to swing my feet up and then I rolled onto the ice. That was when I realized how cold I was.”

“We    weren’t    thinking    about    the    ice breaking again and we were laying on the ice,” Funk said.

“I wasn’t thinking that we could have drowned. We were freaking out that we were going to end up having hypothermia or freezing because the water was so cold,” Funk said.
Dobbs and Funk were not completely out of danger just yet. Luckily, a man who lived in the area saw what happened and began to warn them.

“He said ‘Get out, you’re going to fall again,’ Dobbs said. “So I took one step from where I was standing and immediately after I took that step, exactly where my foot was, turned into water. If I had been there for one more second, I would have gone back under the ice.”

Once Dobbs and Funk escaped the bro- ken ice, they went back to the man’s house. “Thank God for this old man. He gave us towels and then the ambulance came to make sure we were all right. I couldn’t move my hand and Natalie couldn’t move her foot because of hypothermia,” Dobbs said.

“When we got inside [the man’s house] I took of my boots and my feet were white. I was afraid I had frostbite,” Funk said.

Because Dobbs and Funk were showing signs of hypothermia, they had to take the ambulance to the hospital.

“While it was happening, the thought of dying crossed my mind, but then I thought ‘No, no, this is not it for me. Don’t even think about dying, just don’t even think about it,’” Dobbs said.

“I do plan on going back, but I don’t know if I will ride my snowmobile on the lake. But if I lived once, I can probably do it again. I’ll be more careful next time.” Dobbs said.

With help and determination, Dobbs and Funk made it out of the incident alive.

“I didn’t even think about our lives end-ing that day until after we were off the ice,” Funk said.

“We were really, really lucky to get our- selves out of there,” Dobbs said. “They said one person dies every year in northern Wisconsin and it was very close to being us.”

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