Utah County man rescued from icy lake

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

A Utah County man is fine after he and his snowmobile fell through lake ice on Wednesday.

The 75-year-old man went snowmobiling on Payson Lake on Wednesday — about 9 miles up Payson Canyon — when he and his vehicle fell through the ice about 20 to 25 feet from shore, said Utah County Sheriff's Lt. Tom Hodgson. The man had to stand on top of his submerged vehicle, knee to waist-deep in the water.

The three people he was with called for help about 1:24 p.m. Before rescuers arrived, his friends and family helped him out of the water, out of his wet clothes and warmed him by a fire.

"They did it by the book" and the man did not require any medical attention, Hodgson said. All four are experienced snowmobilers who have gone out on the lake before, but they admitted they should have been more cautious this time and checked the thickness of the ice, Hodgson added.

They could not retrieve the snowmobile from the lake.

mmcfall@sltrib.com

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