Yellowknife (Nov 05/04) - Andrew and Lou Little were eating breakfast on the second floor of an Old Town air base Wednesday morning when they spotted someone making their way across the perilously thin ice on Great Slave Lake.

An ambulance parks at the government dock after being summoned when a woman fell through the ice on Back Bay. - Andrew Raven/NNSL photo

Seconds later, the traveller -- who the Littles later discovered was a middle-aged woman -- fell through the ice just metres from her destination: a Department of Fisheries and Oceans dock.

Andrew, a pilot with Arctic Sunwest Charters, and a co-worker raced out to find the woman partially submerged in the frigid water and unable to pull herself out.

Thinking quickly, the rescuers tied a rope to a canoe and pushed it towards the woman.

"The ice was really thin, especially near the shore," said Andrew. "If we had walked on it, the chances are we would have ended up in there as well."

The woman, despite appearing to have a broken leg, said Lou, managed to climb onto the canoe and was pulled ashore.

Rescue workers from the Yellowknife Fire Department arrived a few minutes later and transported the woman to Stanton Territorial Hospital.

Deputy Lieutenant Chucker Dewar said the woman's injuries were not life threatening, but he could not elaborate on her condition.

"She was very lucky somebody saw her," said Dewar, who told Yellowknifer it only takes a few minutes for people to become hypothermic in near-freezing water.

"If this had happened in a lake outside of the city, the person would be in serious trouble," Dewar said.

The Littles, who arrived in Yellowknife just two weeks ago from Australia, said they were surprised the woman was in relatively good spirits when they pulled her from the lake.

"She said to us: 'Don't worry about me. I'll just crawl on my back, get a cab and head downtown,'" said Lou. "I thought they made them tough in Australia."

Dewar said the department advises against travelling across lakes in and around the city. Because the ice is still forming, its thickness is inconsistent, he explained.

May seem thick

"One area may seem thick enough to walk on, but that won't necessarily be true for the entire lake," he said.

The ice should be at least four inches thick for foot traffic and six inches for snow machines, he said.

Dewar encouraged people to keep updated on ice conditions by visiting the Fire Department's Web site. He also suggested anyone crossing a lake wear a life jacket to avoid being swept under the surface.