Body of man, 45, recovered after plunge through ice on Mobile pond

RCMPhave confirmed that the body of a 45-year-old man who plunged through the ice on Mobile Big Pond was recovered late Thursday afternoon.

No other details are available at this time.

Thursday marked the second day of extensive recovery efforts, after the 45-year-old and a 23-year-old companion went through the ice while riding on a snowmobile early Wednesday afternoon.

RCMP and volunteers with Central Avalon Search and Rescue and Avalon North Wolverines Search & Rescue, along with local residents, were all on the scene assisting with the search.

The younger rider told police he was able to pull himself out of the water and walk two kilometres to a nearby cabin where he sought safety. He was airlifted to hospital and police said he was in stable condition.

'Help! Help! Help!'

A man in Mobile is sharing his story of finding the23-year-old distraught and incoherent in his cabin.

• 1 dead after 2snowmobilersgo through the ice in Mobile

"I noticed some kind of footprints in the snow ... [I thought] somebody's after breaking in again," the cabin owner, who refused to provide his name, told CBC's Fred Hutton Thursday afternoon.

"When I got up close enough all I heard was, 'Help! Help! Help!'"

He said he tried to get his buddy up kept trying, kept trying and kept trying and couldn't get him up.- Cabin owner who found survivor

The man who spoke toCBCsaid he was in the area to check on his cabin, as well as his brother-in-law's.

The nearby pond is about 10 kilometres from the Southern Shore highway, officially known as Route 10.

But nothing prepared him for what he saw when he looked in through the broken window.

"Here was the young fella on the floor ... He was pretty shaky, he was kind of distraught at the beginning, and I didn't really understand what he was saying besides, 'In the pond! In the pond!" the cabin owner said.

The 23-year old, who police said walked about two kilometres after pulling himself out of the frigid water, didn't have boots on for that trek.

"His two feet,well, the bottoms were black and the tops were red and blue" along with cuts, the witness recalled.

The young man couldn't have been inside the cabin long, because the stove was barely warm, the owner said.

"I stayed with him, got the heat on, he started speaking clearly and then I put a pile of wood next to him, had him all covered up in blankets," the cabin owner said.

"He just said they were going across the pond and went through. He said he tried to get his buddy up kept trying, kept trying and kept trying and couldn't get him up,"

The cabin owner had forgotten his cellphone, so he had to race back out to the main roadto call for help.After that, he recalled, it was a flurry of activity, with firefighters arriving on the scene shortly after.

He said he hasn't spoken with the young man since, but he is thinking of both men.

"It's amazing how somebody's life can change in just the blink of an eye."