Probe stuck, can't break down

This past weekend I found that I could not break down my probe after assembling it.  I assumed it had gotten wet and then froze, but was still stuck after thawing out.   Its an Ortovox probe with their "PFA" tensioning system (blue plastic disk at the top of the probe is supposed to release it).    Up till now I've tried every method of simply pulling the thing apart that I can think of, short of clamping it in a vice.  My contention is that I need to trigger the release mechanism (blue disk attached to metal post at the top of the probe) but it seems to be stuck.  Has anyone experienced this and have any recommendations?  I've sent a message to the manufacturer but they've yet to respond.

Re-commission it as a stick clip for the warm months...

Maybe this will help:
www.ortovox.com/xfiles_a6/1292416867_124.pdf

Check out page 2, Good luck!

This space reserved for when I think of another mod-deletable probe joke.....