The story was originally published March 5, 2024. It has been updated to reflect changes in time references.
Maine Warden Nick Bartholomew told his story a week after falling through the ice on his snowmobile in 2024, while searching for an overdue snowmobiler on Moosehead Lake.
He and other wardens were searching for Colby Davis, who was separated from his friend in a snow squall while riding snowmobiles near Farm Island in Tomhegan Township. Davis was found the next morning, safe and warm in a camp five miles from where he and his friend became separated.
Bartholomew said that he was familiar with the area and had spent a lot of time there as a warden, fisherman and snowmobiler on the cove where he fell through.
“In a place that just days before I had parked my sled and checked fishermen, my worst fear became a reality,” Bartholomew said in a written statement.
He started across the cove that night at 7:30 p.m. heading toward areas of bad ice north of Tomhegan camps where Warden Taylor Valente thought the missing snowmobiler may have gotten into trouble, he said.
The conditions were not good. He described snow squalls and black ice with no snow on the lake and poor visibility. It was dark and about 3 degrees Fahrenheit.
Then his sled broke through the ice.
“I immediately recognized the feeling of my snowmobile going through the ice and into the water. Before I knew it, I was in the water, swimming as my snowmobile sank below me,” Bartholomew said.
Bartholomew was wearing a float coat and a helmet when he went into the water.
He got his arms up on the good ice, kicked his legs and pulled himself out of the water onto the ice.
“I looked back at the sled in the water and could not comprehend what had happened. In this very spot I had stood next to an ice shack, fishermen and snowmobiles with no indication of thin ice,” he said.
Bartholomew walked about a quarter mile to shore, where he contacted Valente, stopping the other warden from going out on the lake himself.
Bartholomew had minor injuries, including frostbite to his ears, he said.
The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife retrieved the sled from Moosehead a few days later, according to Mark Latti, communications director.
The incident occurred after several snowmobiles broke through unsafe ice in 2024, including three on Moosehead. One man died after falling through the ice.
