Stranded skiers use ice chunks to spell out 'SOS'
The skiers were described as being experienced and prepared.
A pair of skiers became stranded on ice between Oulu, Finland, and Luleå, Sweden, on March 10, according to a report by Yle, the English news division of Finland’s national public service media company.
The pair, which the Coast Guard described as “experienced” and “prepared,” had been attempting to ski the 167-km stretch of frozen lake between Finland and Sweden.
Western Finland Coast Guard.
According to the Western Finland Coast Guard, the skiers, a German man and woman, had spent the night camping on ice over the Bothnian Bay, which is frozen from 4-7 months out of the year. Overnight, the ice underneath them began to break up, sending nearly all of their equipment into the water.
The pair made their way onto an ice floe and used a radio beacon to activate an alarm.
The rescue occurred around 11:40 a.m., roughly five hours later.
A file photo of the Hermanni islands, a group of small islands in the Bothnian Bay near Oulu, Finland. (Estormiz/Wikipedia Public Domain.
The skiers also helped get rescuers’ attention by using chunks of ice to spell “SOS” — the universal signal for distress — according to the New York Post.
Although cold when found, the Coast Guard reports they were in otherwise good condition.
The rescue was performed by aircraft from Finland and Sweden, amid “challenging” weather conditions, Yle reports.