Ice fishing is a popular winter activity on the Dillon Reservoir. But rather than a rod and lure, the crew that carved a hole in the ice Monday, Feb. 12, had hundreds of feet of rigging and steel cables attached to two heavy wreckers.

The catch of the day: two skid steer loaders — machines that can weigh about 6,000 pounds a piece — that had broken through the ice almost two weeks earlier. One of the machines was on its side, and the other was on its tracks, an estimated 42 feet below the ice at the bottom of the lake, Mountain Recovery owner Charlie Stubblefield said.

“The big thing is we don’t want to be here any longer than we have to be because it’s an unsafe environment,” Stubblefield said. “So the quicker we can perform the job, get it done, get the zone closed off to the general public, the safer.”

Chainsaws roared throughout the day as a team from Mountain Recovery worked to cut through the thick ice so that a dive team could dip beneath the icy water to hook rigging to the two submerged vehicles.

The two skid steers fell through the ice Wednesday, Jan 31. Dillon Town Manager Nathan Johnson said the operator of one of the skid steers escaped the vehicle just before it plunged through the ice.

“There was one person that barely got out — just a couple seconds,” Johnson said. “He couldn’t get the door open at first, but then he did. We’ve got to celebrate the wins here. Nobody was injured or — even worse off — killed by this event.”

The town does not own the skid steers. Johnson said The Recess Factory, a contractor working to prepare for the Colorado Pond Hockey Tournament, had been working to clear the snowpack off the ice to build the rinks for an annual tournament.

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Event organizers like those behind the pond hockey tournament are required to submit safety plans and log their operations on the reservoir, Johnson said. The costs of recovering the two pieces of equipment did not fall to the taxpayer, he said.

After the equipment fell through the ice, Dillon canceled its plans to host both the Colorado Pond Hockey Tournament and Summit Youth Pond Hockey Tournament on the Dillon Reservoir this year on account of the variable ice conditions. The Lake Loops on the reservoir have also remained closed since.

The Colorado Pond Hockey Tournament was relocated to Georgetown, where it will take place on the Georgetown Lake this upcoming weekend. The Summit Youth Pond Hockey Tournament took place at the Stephen C. West Ice Arena in Breckenridge last weekend.

Ahead of the recovery mission Monday, Stubblefield said his team worked with Denver Water and other stakeholders to develop a tactical operations plan with safety officers on the ice and Summit Fire & EMS and the Summit County Sheriff’s Office dive team on standby.

Cutting through the ice took much of the day as the crew — some of them in Mustang Ice Command suits designed for cold water immersion — carved the ice into bricks and hauled the cubes from the water.

Throughout the day, town residents stopped to watch the scene. At first, Stubblefield said he expected to carry on into a second day. But after starting around 8 a.m., the team wrapped up before dark and ahead of schedule. 

A spokesperson for Denver Water said in an email that there was no damage to infrastructure or operations due to the skid steers falling through the ice.  

Johnson noted that event organizers operating on the lake have to file a safety plan with the town. While ice conditions can be variable, he said talks are ongoing about what can be done to prevent these types of situations from happening in the future.

“Hosting things out on the lake, you can’t control Mother Nature,” Johnson said. “It’s like a ski resort. Some years you have a banner year, other years you don’t. It just hasn’t been a great year in terms of ice.”