By Josh Stilts
The Brattleboro Reformer
WHITINGHAM, Vt. — In the frozen darkness Mario Barbaro held on to the snowy boulder with all his might.
Barbaro, of Long Island, N.Y., and his friends were riding their snowmobiles along the Harriman Reservoir Friday night close to shore when the ice opened up and swallowed his sled.
At about 6:40 p.m., Whitingham firefighters and the Whitingham Ambulance Service received a call from one of Barbaro’s friends that they were stuck out on the lake and that Barbaro’s snowmobile had fallen through the ice leaving him stranded on a rock, fire chief Stan Janovsky said.
“It was like finding a needle in a haystack,” he said. “The call came through that they were somewhere below the dam and possibly a quarter mile from it.”
Whitingham firefighters, Lt. Sheldon Dix and Seth Boyd mounted their personal snowmobiles and rode toward the dam.
“The caller had their location fairly accurate,” Boyd said. “West side of the lake, just north of the dam.”
After 10 minutes or so the firefighters were able to locate the stranded snowmobiler, Janovsky said.
As we advanced up the railroad tracks along the craved out route, we were watching the lake and spotted several other snowmobiles, Boyd said.
“It was a quite, calm night so we could call out to them fairly easily,” he said. “It was dark and he was afraid to move off the rock.”
The drivers of the four other vehicles were behind Barbaro when his snowmobile dropped into the water and he was able to jump off and land on the boulder, Boyd said.
“They didn’t dare move, not knowing where the ice was or wasn’t safe,” he said.
Boyd and Dix drove over a steep embankment to the edge of the lake to retrieve Barbaro.
“It was much easier than it could have been, we consider ourselves fortunate,” Boyd said. “Visibility was good but there was a light wind and sub-zero temperatures, not a place you’d want to spend the night.”
The lake often has open areas, especially along the shoreline, which crack as the power company changes the water level throughout the winter, adjusting for electricity needed, he said.
“He was extremely lucky,” Boyd said. “Dressed in all that heavy gear he would have sunk quickly and even if he were able to get to the surface hypothermia, frost nip and or bite could have set in within a few minutes.”
Barbaro and his friends were escorted back to safety by Dix and Boyd. The Brattleboro Fire Department’s dive team, Deerfield Valley Rescue, and Halifax Emergency Medical Corps were initially dispatched to the scene but were called back after he was recovered without injury.
Vermont State Police arrived on scene approximately 20 minutes after Barbaro was rescued but no medical transport was necessary, Janovsky said.
Justin Berry, president of the Whitingham Amublance Service, said all agencies involved in the rescue responded well.
“Everyone came together like they should have and it went really well,” he said.
The snowmobile was not recovered.
An investigation by the state police is still pending.
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