By Aidan Mortensen | KOAL News | Photo courtesy of the Emery County Sheriff’s Office
Despite the warm winter across the Castle Country, the Emery County Sheriff’s Office, the Utah Division of State Parks and Dive Rescue International are staying prepared for icy conditions. This preparation was highlighted recently, as the organizations partnered for a joint training session in which representatives from each group trained to become ice rescue technicians and instructors.
“The group spent three days training – two in the classroom and one day on the ice and in the water,” states a release from Sheriff Tyson Huntington. “We chose to do this training because of the increasing numbers of ice fishermen and fisherwoman coming to the area to fish. We plan on training our deputies and Search and Rescue Team to be able to respond to these types of calls and provide safe support and rescue to those in need.”
Warmer trends at the end of 2025 and early 2026 have left lakes across the Castle Country with either thin ice or open water. In an area where ice fishing and other winter activities are popular, this creates less-than-ideal conditions for outdoorsmen.
“There are a lot of ice fishermen and women in our community. So we want to make sure we have trained folks,” said Emery County Commissioner Jordan Leonard in an interview with Castle Country Radio.
Huntington echoed this sentiment, sharing,” This will be a good skill for our personnel to have going forward.”
For citizens still looking to brave the conditions and step on the ice, Brandon Behling from the Division of Wildlife Resources shared tips on how to stay safe on questionable ice: “You want to make sure that you’ve got nice, clear ice. That’s gonna be a good sign that the ice is gonna be really structurally sound. If you’ve got that cloudy or bubbly ice, it’s created air pockets or soft spots you could fall through. It’s always good to take some safety equipment with you. Have a pair of ice picks in case you do go in; you’ll be able to use them to help stick into the ice so you can pull yourself out. Have a throw bag that has rope in it that you can throw out and help pull yourself or somebody else in.”
Continued Behling,” The biggest thing, though, is just make sure somebody knows where you’re going. You don’t want to go alone. If you are a brave soul and you decide to venture alone, let your family or friends know where you’re going and when you plan to be back that way, you have a little bit of security in that.”
For more information on conditions at state parks across the state, visit stateparks.utah.gov.