Althouse: "Two Wisconsin men are grateful to be alive after surviving two terrifying hours on ice floes in Lake Superior as heavy waves crashed around them."

January 27, 2011

"Two Wisconsin men are grateful to be alive after surviving two terrifying hours on ice floes in Lake Superior as heavy waves crashed around them."

"Skip Wick, 80, of Hurley, and Mike Popko, 61, of Saxon, ... were among 50 to 75 ice anglers fishing on 1-foot-thick ice near Ashland. Wick was about 500 yards from shore when cracks suddenly appeared. He and Popko made their way shoreward as heavy swells below the ice expanded the fractures. But as they jumped from one ice chunk to another they ran out of steppingstones. They rode out the storm on separate floes while waves raged as high as 12 feet."

37 comments:

Crimso said...: That must be one tough 80 year old.; 1/27/11, 6:43 PM
SteveR said...: Gordon Lightfoot is working on it

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours; 1/27/11, 6:46 PM
Revenant said...: Here in San Diego it got a little nippy, so I closed the sliding glass door.

Wildfires I can handle; no ice plz.; 1/27/11, 6:46 PM
traditionalguy said...: Where else could they go? Darn that Global warming for melting lake the ice early.; 1/27/11, 6:52 PM
Anonymous said...: I don't fish. But if I did fish, I would not do it in the cold and in such a way as to court death.

However, if I indeed did, I would hope that I would have the courage and luck evinced by those two men.; 1/27/11, 6:55 PM
rhhardin said...: Morton salt could get a motto out of it.

When it rains, it floes.; 1/27/11, 6:58 PM
traditionalguy said...: I just want to know what happened to Anne Margaret??; 1/27/11, 6:58 PM
David said...: Skip Wick was on an ice floe in Superior for two hours?

His new nickname: "Tiny."

(The guys will get it.); 1/27/11, 7:02 PM
Crimso said...: What would be really cool would be a mashup of this post with the two immediately below it. I'm thinking Rahm with an upward-pointing phallus, naked on an ice floe, poking the 80 yr old dude in the chest while he harangues him. I know, sometimes my imagination runs wild.; 1/27/11, 7:03 PM
Martin L. Shoemaker said...: Wow... An ice flo rescue story that involves neither alcohol nor snowmobiles... Those are pretty rare...; 1/27/11, 7:09 PM
Unknown said...: As the Coast Guard says, "Don't think big lake. Think small ocean".

Sounds like a survival story out of Murmansk run in WWII.

traditionalguy said...

I just want to know what happened to Anne Margaret??

That's Ann-Margret. She married Roger Smith.; 1/27/11, 7:11 PM
Peter Hoh said...: Ice floes, or death panels?; 1/27/11, 7:25 PM
bagoh20 said...: "I don't fish. But if I did fish, I would not do it in the cold and in such a way as to court death."

My two pastimes are fishing and hang gliding. I'm working on how to combine them. It's gonna go viral when I do.

Strangely, you need a license to fish behind your neighbor's house, but not to fly over it.; 1/27/11, 8:02 PM
jimspice said...: The windsled that rescued the men was singled out as wasteful spending by Bush back in 92: http://nucnews.net/nucnews/2002nn/0202nn/020218nn.htm#160; 1/27/11, 8:37 PM
bagoh20 said...: "The windsled that rescued the men was singled out as wasteful spending "

Have we given up on "It's for the children!"?

Now: It's for the old codger ice fishermen!; 1/27/11, 8:43 PM
Cedarford said...: SteveR said...
Gordon Lightfoot is working on it

"Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours."

=================
Those lines make "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" immortal for mariners.
Thanks, Steve R, for the reminder.; 1/27/11, 9:03 PM
Anonymous said...: Yeah, Jim, because the state of Wisconsin or the locality couldn't solve the problem. Only the federal government.; 1/27/11, 9:07 PM
MadisonMan said...: Yeah, Jim, because the state of Wisconsin or the locality couldn't solve the problem. Only the federal government.

The local government did solve the problem - they had the Federal govt pay for it.

I think the Feds should be paying to pluck people from the Ocean, and apparently it's a small ocean, not a big lake, according to the US Coast Guard.; 1/27/11, 9:28 PM
Anonymous said...: I think the Feds should be paying to pluck people from the Ocean

I do not. I think the state, the county, the city, or an insurance carrier.

But at least we are able to see the critical point of disagreement.; 1/27/11, 9:35 PM
kjbe said...: Another reason I'm not taking up ice fishing.; 1/27/11, 9:50 PM
MadisonMan said...: Let's say only Idiots Out Walking Around live in Iowa, and they have a proclivity for drowning in the waters of Louisiana. Why should Louisiana foot the bill for saving them? What do they get in return? Grateful Iowans? That and a buck fifty will get you 2/3rds of a coffee at Starbucks.

( I don't think it's the case that you're presented a bill when you're saved -- I'd have no problem with that at all.); 1/27/11, 9:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Madison -- So Louisiana shouldn't pay for Iowa's idiots, we should all pay for Iowa's idiots. Why? What is so magical for you about a bigger pool of payers further removed from what is being payed for?

Anyway, your suppositions are simply not believable. If it makes you feel better, though, you should know that a legislative body can make these things called law.

For example, the law could be that non-citizens must buy a bond to ice fish, or that everybody must buy a bond to ice fish. Or it could be plainly that the state or locality will only rescue its taxpayers. Or there could be a law: no ice fishing. Or the law could be: only ice fishing in these areas where we, the government, will agree to and have the potential capacity to maybe rescue you in the event of a disaster. Or something else.

Jesus Christ! Be creative. Your flow chart is the simplest imaginable: the end is always: federal government pays. It's not just financially impossible, it's also trite.

Finally, I think presentation of bill is very common.; 1/27/11, 10:04 PM
Crimso said...: "The windsled that rescued the men was singled out as wasteful spending by Bush back in 92"

Yeah, and since these two old guys are still alive instead of dead, think of all the money that will ultimately be wasted on the last few months of their lives. If they'd listened to Bush, the healthcare system would now have a couple of fewer problems to have to eventually deal with.; 1/27/11, 10:15 PM
William said...: They discovered the one good thing about ice fishing: it is not as bad as death.; 1/27/11, 10:27 PM
MadisonMan said...: So Louisiana shouldn't pay for Iowa's idiots, we should all pay for Iowa's idiots. Why?

Because Iowa money is going into the pot.

A lot of what the US Coast Guard does is Search and Rescue. Who pays for those boats?; 1/27/11, 10:28 PM
Anonymous said...: Madison -- So the key for you is some belief in equality, results and anything accomplished of the people or by the people -- none of that matters.

The problems with your approach are many and impossible to overcome. At issue right now, though, is that Iowans and all others are taking out about $100 for every dollar they put in. That doesn't work for any entity. You just can't use up more resources than you take in for an unlimited period of time.; 1/27/11, 10:33 PM
AllenS said...: My two neighbors Sven and Ole went fishing on Lake Superior last week, and this is the tale they told:

Ole was catching all the fish, but Sven wasn't catching anything.

Sven went to Ole and asked, "Eh, Ole, why are you catching all the fish, and I'm not catching a thing?"

Ole answers, "Um-i-um-mm-a- mm."

Sven says, "Ole, I did not understand that, say it again."

Ole answers, "Um-i-um-mm-a-mm."

Sven was getting irritated, and says "Ole, please, I still cannot understand you."

Ole turned to one side and PHHTTT! spits out a mouthful. "I said, you have to keep the worms warm!"; 1/28/11, 6:40 AM
MDIJim said...: We think we're tough in Maine, but,Man, 500 yards out on the ice and 80 years old! Obama needs to get those death panels in service soon. Or maybe they could reform Social Security by setting up an office 500 yards off Wisconsin and making every beneficiary go out there to pick up their checks for January, February and March.

Thanks SteveR for the line from Gordon Lightfoot. Love that song.; 1/28/11, 7:50 AM
Calypso Facto said...: Uh oh. S'posed to ski across that bay in 3 weeks for the Book Across the Bay xc race. Maybe I should bring water skis as a backup.; 1/28/11, 8:01 AM
mariner said...: That sounds damned scary.

And WAY too damned cold.; 1/28/11, 8:44 AM
Phil 314 said...: Good thing these old guys weren't Inuit.; 1/28/11, 9:19 AM
Phil 314 said...: The windsled that rescued the men was singled out as wasteful spending by Bush back in 92:

Score one point for their side....
Well since its Bush 1, they just get a half a point.

Jim; what's the score so far?

Can someone look up and find out what party affiliation these two old guys had?; 1/28/11, 9:23 AM
JAL said...: You know -- this "two old guys" stuff is beginning to grate.

Our hostess is --- 60. Remember?

One of the "old guys" is *61*

So -- when does she go over the hump, mmmmm? And she too goes out on the ice. Maybe even 500 yards. In the howling wind as we have seen. Is she too old? Was she too far?

Funny how 61 is "old" when you're 45 or less.

Ha.

*In memory of Jack LaLane*; 1/28/11, 11:44 AM
JAL said...: @ Calypso -- pontoon skiis? With paddles?

wv monist
I am not one.; 1/28/11, 11:46 AM
Phil 314 said...: You know -- this "two old guys" stuff is beginning to grate.

Its all perspective

All diseases run into one, old age.
Ralph Waldo Emerson; 1/28/11, 3:19 PM
Calypso Facto said...: Just thought I'd rope up to a skimming snow mobile, JAL!; 1/28/11, 6:57 PM
JAL said...: Well Calypso -- this is what I'd like to try (hubby is discouraging me ;-); 1/29/11, 9:42 AM