arcticracer
New member
Hello everyone from the Fairbanks area, my neighbor and good friend Dave Lace owns a Snow Trac. We live on the Tanana River 10 miles south of Fairbanks, it is a glacial river that is swift, cold, and quite large. It is extremely silty in the summer but runs clear in the winter.
On Dec. 23rd a friend of Daves who had never driven his rig took it out onto the river with 4 others along for the ride. Long story short, he drove up to an open lead of water, and the ice cracked a bit. Everyone jumped out, but the driver. He tried to get into reverse but instead lurched forward, into the water. It started going down, and drifting downstream. When it hit bottom in 15 feet of water he escaped through the rear door and to the surface, where he was rescued by 2 of the guys who were with him. Lucky guy! He was only about 5 feet from where the open water ended.
Dave started planning the recovery. He enlisted a talented diver and support team from a local dive shop called Test the Waters. mitch is the diver and owner of the business, and he was able to dive to the rig using a tether, and hook a steel cable to the hitch receiver.
Next came the hard part, chopping a huge hole in 4 feet of ice. That was not easy, but 4 days ago we were ready for the recovery effort. We used a 28,000 lb. Gradall (like a Zoom boom) to pick out the ice chunks that had been cut with a huge chain saw. FInally, the hole was ready and we pulled it out! It had been underwater for 2 months. There is no rusting in freezing fresh water, so things looked fine. They did pull the engine though which had some silt in it. It was a tired engine so i think they plan to replace or rebuild it.
Hope you enjoy the pictures!
Dale in Alaska
On Dec. 23rd a friend of Daves who had never driven his rig took it out onto the river with 4 others along for the ride. Long story short, he drove up to an open lead of water, and the ice cracked a bit. Everyone jumped out, but the driver. He tried to get into reverse but instead lurched forward, into the water. It started going down, and drifting downstream. When it hit bottom in 15 feet of water he escaped through the rear door and to the surface, where he was rescued by 2 of the guys who were with him. Lucky guy! He was only about 5 feet from where the open water ended.
Dave started planning the recovery. He enlisted a talented diver and support team from a local dive shop called Test the Waters. mitch is the diver and owner of the business, and he was able to dive to the rig using a tether, and hook a steel cable to the hitch receiver.
Next came the hard part, chopping a huge hole in 4 feet of ice. That was not easy, but 4 days ago we were ready for the recovery effort. We used a 28,000 lb. Gradall (like a Zoom boom) to pick out the ice chunks that had been cut with a huge chain saw. FInally, the hole was ready and we pulled it out! It had been underwater for 2 months. There is no rusting in freezing fresh water, so things looked fine. They did pull the engine though which had some silt in it. It was a tired engine so i think they plan to replace or rebuild it.
Hope you enjoy the pictures!
Dale in Alaska