Russian Resourcefulness

(YouTube link)

Just yesterday we had a post about Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world, and now we have a video from there! A Honda SUV that had ventured out on the frozen lake crashed through the ice. According to commenters, Lake Bailkal has no bridges, but there are ferries in the summer, and people drive across on the ice in winter all the time. But this happened in late spring, when the ice was melting.

Now what to do? They can't bring heavy equipment out on the ice, considering what's already happened. So... these guys built their own human-powered winch to haul the car back up! The car survived, and is still in use. The music is Декабрь - Дубинушка. -via Daily Picks and Flicks

That is some excellent work! I never would have figured that a winch of this type would work, even though the math actually works out quite well (given the mass of the car plus water, length of the lever arm, radius of the spindle embedded in the ice, etc). Without having seen it, it would never have occurred to me. Now that I know, I will keep it filed away, in case I have need for something like this.

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I am amazed at how nobody seems to care too much about safety in this video! No ropes, no flotation devices, no ladders, standing very close to a hole in the ice (that has proven to be unstable)...
I agree with Daniel: very nice work indeed, and I hope I will remember this technique if I ever will need it!

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That was clever!

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I find your analysis of the dangers disturbing. There were potential rescuers standing well away from the car. The stupid part was assuming a car which had fallen through the ice would stay on top of another patch of ice only a few feet away. If the skid plate was longer and attached to the car, that would not have been an issue.