Lake hazard?

There was a very famous accident in Canada involving Justin Trudeau, a lake, and an avalanche. That aside, what are the survival odds if you fall through the ice while wearing skis? Wonder if anyone as actually perished in this manner?

Glad to learn of your good fortune Snow Bell.

It was actually Michel Trudeau who was swept out on to Kokanee Lake by an avalanche.

There was a show on TLC or something where some US special forces were doing alpine training. They intentionally skied into a hole in the ice, had to throw pack off, unclip ancient three pin binders, then use poles as daggers to drag themselves out. It looked, ah, non-trivial!

just dress appropriately!
but I don't think it is possible to get boots off when swimming. even the skis are pretty tough if you are treading water.

How big was the open area in front of the stream?  I'm wondering if the bigger (or smaller) the opening, the better the indicator that the ice might not be ready (or is good) to cross?  Just a thought.  Good thread Joe.  This has me thinking that I take lake crossings a little too lightly.  :-[

The area near the outlet that was free of ice was maybe a couple of hundred square feet as I recall.  I was hoping to do some research yesterday and the day before so that I could add some info to this thread but I have not gotten around to it yet.  All I found in the brief time that I looked was that several people die each year from breaking through frozen lakes in the North East including one fisherman the day before yesterday as reported on the evening news.  I wonder if someone here doesn't have more to add in helping us assess the safety of frozen lakes.  It seems that among the active participants on the forum we have an expert in nearly everything.

Thanks to Travertine for posing the question.  Interestingly enough to me, as he posted it the very day I encountered the issue first hand.

Wasn't there a scene in Jeremiah Johnson where he falls through the ice?

Never Cry Wolf has a good scene where the wildlife biologist falls through the ice and blasts his way out.

Never Cry Wolf has a good scene where the wildlife biologist falls through the ice and blasts his way out.

That's it! That's the scene I was thinking of. I remember it being pretty vivid and terrifying. Thanks.