Jenn Walsh gets pulled onto a rescue boat during training with the Haines Volunteer Fire Department at Chilkoot Lake on Sunday, March 1, 2026, near Haines, Alaska. (Rashah McChesney/Chilkat Valley News)

It was windy and the temperature was in the single digits on Sunday as Nate Arrants stood on thin ice at Chilkoot Lake. 

The volunteer firefighter jumped up and down until he broke through and ended up in waist-deep water, laughing. 

Nearby, State Park…

Rashah McChesney is a multimedia journalist and editor who has reported and edited newsrooms from the Deep South to the Midwest to Alaska. For the past decade, she has worked in collaborative news as the...