Have in vain tried to find out the water temperature in lake Vdnern was at the time, but as the rescue boat had problems approaching the site, due to the ice floes, a good guess is slightly above freezing, say three degrees Centigrade. Wearing half wet suits (covering the legs and the lower torso), then Goretex paddle jackets (or something like that) and whitewater PFDs, no winter gloves (as far as I have managed to find out) and using kayaks with no built-in flotation, seems to me pushing the envelope, so to speak. Evidently were both guys in splendid physical and psychological condtition, with little, or no, fat, and not equipped for any emergency at all - as they seem to have carried no emergency gear of any sort (except a cellular phone, that quickly died during the first call for assistance). I would guess the scenery was like this: These two worldclass athletes were lightly dressed, as they were paddling hard and intensive - a full wet suit would have been very warm. When they encountered some surf they enjoyed it a lot (interviews with the survivor tell us), probably gliding with the waves for some distance until one of the waves rolled Rappe. Thus their body temeperatures probably went down even before the accident, and then suddenly overturning, Rappe found himself being throughly wet, thinly clad, and in windy conditions, surrounded by ice floes. Being very lean Rappe cooled down fast, so the option of re-entering the kayak was out within minutes, instead Rappe, on his friend's insistance used the float in his kayak as a mini life-raft to cling on to, but that didn't work either. As far as I understand the situation, they didn't bring any dry clothes, down jackets, or anything like that, or anything to make fire with, and probably no hot liquid either. They hadn't planned to stop, so they had nothing with them, a mistake many of us do make, when we paddle in familiar surroundings, close to base. On a prefect spring afternoon, Tord S Eriksson *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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