For years now, when the river ice is thick enough, and on a day when the wind blows from the west, we get out an old parachute, sometimes with skis or maybe just a sled and head for the ice and  go where the wind takes us.

This past Sunday (January 16, 2000) was special though as the wind was blowing like we had not seen it before.  The radio said 70 kph and very steady.  I knew it was too dangerous for skis , ( tried that a few years back in a wind about half the strength of this one and wiped out pretty bad ) so John our dog Rusty and I  just headed out to see what fun we could have. Oh yes, I did take an old aluminium snow shovel to sit on.

Besides the wind, it was very cold as the first image will attest showing John and Rusty looking rather frosty.   Image one

I had the first run on the shovel and stopped after about a quarter of a mile. John and Rusty came running to where I was, but we could not walk back on the ice against that wind. The only way we could move on the ice was to crawl. So we went ashore and back to our starting position through the trees.   John went up to the house and got crampons for our boots and that allowed us to navigate on the ice in that wind for the rest of the afternoon.

The next image shows John just starting to get the wind in the chute, he bravely standing up.  Image two

The next one shows more wind in the chute.  Image three

Image four shows John starting his slide ( on his butt )  with Rusty chasing after him.  Image four

The last image shows him tearing along at great speed  Image five

I learned about using a parachute like this from a story I read years ago of some place in Norway or Denmark where with the right wind speed and direction, some skiers found they could get back to the top of the hill using a parachute.

Twice during the 17 years we have been here I have been successful in being towed by the parachute all the way to Aylmer, five miles down river, where I have had to call Paulene to come and get me in the car.