Re: [Paddlewise] ice

While making no judgements about Vince Dalrymple's exploits, I will offer some observations from my experiences flatwater kayaking the rivers of Michigan, in air temps ranging down to minus 14oF, and water temps approaching freezing (think Slurpee on the rocks).  Maybe some of them are adaptable for open water.
I carry a Hudson's Bay axe on the foredeck, with a quick-release sheath of my own design.  When seal-launching from an elevated bank, my momentum may not carry me out to a point where the thin ice breaks underneath my weight.  By reaching forward and sinking the axehead into the ice as far I can, I haul myself forward.  It's like climbing an ice-fall, horizontally.  This also works to get through impasses where the river is blocked by slab ice.
Before launching, I tie a long rope to a stationary object on shore.  The other end is tied to an old detergent bottle (I prefer Tide-- nice orange color).  I coil the line on the afterdeck, where it pays out as I work my way to the edge.  There I position the bottle so that I can retrieve it when I'm ready to haul out.  Sometimes the line freezes into the ice a bit, but polypropylene, while very stretchy, works loose and allows me to pull myself onto dry land, or at least thick ice.  It's analogous to ice diving:  you want to come out through the same hole you went in, and have a lifeline waiting for you.  In a pinch, of course, the axe trick will get you to shore, but the rope is a lot easier.
Dan Harrison





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