The ride downriver had been good. But by evening on the way back, it started to get bumpy.“There was lots of dark spots, lots of water,” said Nikiefer. Then suddenly, the ice turned needley. The snowmachine stopped, and then started to sink. They jumped off and started to swim.

Two four-wheelers carrying five men leaving Bethel broke through needle ice on the upper end of Church Slough on Sunday night. Two of the men died, while three others were treated for hypothermia in Bethel.

'This year especially there's been lots of reports of thin ice and open water in places where there hasn't been in previous years,' said James Connor of the Klondike Snowmobile Association.

It was a terrifyingly close call for a family with a three-month-old baby last weekend, when their sled plunged through the ice.

Darcy Bourassa was just walking around his house on Tuesday when 'I must have stepped right in the perfect spot and went through.' "What I think was happening here is there's a lot of snow built up it's really insulated in the snow and it hasn't been cold this fall or this winter so there's not a lot of ice penetration underneath that snow."