John Rosenthal finds skating across the deep-blue ice of Lake Champlain at bike-level speeds to be “dramatic and exciting.”

But the 75-year-old Charlotte, Vt., resident has long known that ice skating on such a large, natural surface is not without risks.

“We never say ice is safe, only skateable, because stuff can go on out there,” he said.

On Tuesday, Rosenthal was one of five skaters who got a firm reminder of what can happen on the ice. The group had to be rescued by boat more than 2,000 feet from shore after a 600-foot-wide gap opened up between them and the next patch of ice.

The incident drew seven state and local agencies to escort the skaters across the gap, according to a press release from Charlotte Volunteer Fire and Rescue. No one was injured.

Setting out that morning, Rosenthal had no reason to believe the ice would be any trouble. In fact, conditions on the lake seemed more or less the same as when he went out the day before. He lives only 300 feet away from the shore.

He’s a member of the Nordic skating community of Burlington, which also has a very active social media page where hobbyists crowdsource information about conditions and share safety tips, he said.

Rosenthal met some fellow skaters at the Charlotte Town Beach parking lot, and the group encountered several others on the ice throughout the morning. The day was clear and not too cold, reaching a high of 30 degrees.

Phyl Newbeck was part of the “early bird” folks in the morning. She noticed there was a “very skinny crack” with open water in it parallel to the shore, she said.

“I’m nervous by nature, so I was a little worried about it,” she said.

When some of her group members decided to go across to meet some people from New York, she decided instead to turn back.

“It was wider, but it was still very easy to cross,” she said. “And the ice close to shore, it wasn’t big ice, but there was still quite a bit.”

She saw no reason to think it would cause so much drama later.

But it did.

When Rosenthal’s group of three decided to turn back, the gap had widened and would continue to do so as they skated a mile south, then a mile north, trying to find the end of the crack or a place where it was narrow enough to simply hop over.

At first, they weren’t particularly panicked, Rosenthal said. Small streams of water can develop in what are called fold-down ridges, but there’s still ice underneath them that you can cross if you don’t mind getting your feet wet. Plus, several members of their group had dry suits.

But the gap was too wide. Someone in Rosenthal’s group called a friend on shore who was about to launch to skate. This person then decided to call 911. As they waited for the authorities to arrive, two more people skated up, still enjoying themselves.

“They did not know they needed to be rescued,” he said.

As different rescue personnel arrived, Rosenthal listened as a debate ensued about the safest way to ferry the skaters across the gap. More dramatic means have been used before: In 1988, 21 ice fishers on Lake Champlain were rescued by helicopter amid high winds and waves.

Ultimately, the rescuers transferred the skaters with a motorized, inflatable dingy. Rosenthal said he then biked home and immediately took a nap.

Dan Spada, a New York skater who was there earlier in the day, praised both the rescuers and the rescued for handling the situation smoothly.

“They kept their cool,” he said. “They were prepared.”

Spada said he began Nordic skating in 2009 after encountering someone wearing the long, stable Nordic skates on the frozen shores of the Rideau Canal in Ontario. From his early days, fellow skaters have been welcoming and ready to share tips about safe gear.

Has the recent rescue made him rethink going out on the ice? Well, when a reporter contacted him on Friday, he answered the phone just as he was about to go skating.

“Nordic ice skating on wild ice is an inherently risky sport, so we do things to minimize that risk to individually acceptable levels,” Spada said. “We accept responsibility for others. That is, if we’re not prepared, we’re endangering other people. So we try to be as prepared as possible.”

This story was republished with permission from VtDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To learn more, visit vtdigger.org/community-news-sharing-project.