2 Snowmobilers Rescued From NH Lake

By that time, 25-year-old Andrew Grant of Belmont had been in the water with only his head exposed for about 50 minutes Sunday night.

Grant was eventually pulled out of the water and loaded onto a rescue sled and carried back to shore. He spent the night in the hospital for hypothermia.

"The hypothermia was definitely setting in, it was very, very cold," Laconia Assistant Fire Chief Kirk Beattie told WBZ NewsRadio 1030. "There's nothing else to say other than that the gentleman was very, very lucky."

Fish and Game officers said Grant was ahead of his friend, 22-year-old Terry Threlfall of Lochmere, heading from their bobhouse at Ahern State Park to the Belmont Town Beach. Grant was traveling on snow-covered ice when he noticed the ice was black and tried to turn around, but went through. He ended up in an open channel and got his helmet off, which he used to stay afloat.

Threlfall slowed down to see what happened, but his snowmobile went through the ice, too. He was able to get back onto the ice, walk to a home and call 911. He returned to Grant's location with a personal flotation device and a rope, but couldn't reach him.

Officers said the distance from shoreline to the open channel was 1,400 feet, about a quarter of a mile.

Beattie said snowmobilers have to be careful when on or near ice.

"If you're on the water or on the ice and you don't know where you are, there's always a potential for open water," he said.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens reports:

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