Prolific Alaska photographer Bill Hess is recovering from an unexpected dip in the Arctic Ocean, as Alaskans have come together to help replace cameras that were destroyed by the frigid water.
Hess' photos of whale hunts on the North Slope have been the subject of profiles in both the Alaska Dispatch News and national media.
According to Tuesday posts on Hess' Facebook page, he had been shooting a bowhead whale hunt near Point Hope when he stepped through a hole in the ice he'd mistaken for a patch of slush.
"I thought I could step out of it with only wet feet but I just kept going down," Hess wrote. "I tried to fling my cameras onto the ice in front of me, but both plunged in. I quickly yanked them out and onto the ice but kept going down myself."
As Hess initially spread out his upper body on the ice, he wondered whether he should ask others to come help him.
"I didn't want anyone to see this stupid thing I had done and tried to clamber quietly out but kept sliding backward, downward," Hess wrote. "I did not want to cry out for help but if I didn't, I was gone. 'Help!' I cried out. 'Help!'"
Hess said three men -- whaling captain Frank Nashookpuk, Guy Tuzroyluk and Ripley Nashookpuk Jr. -- rushed to the hole in the ice, grabbing his arms and saving his life. He was soon inside a cook tent warming next to a Coleman stove.
Later that evening, he wrote, he visited Frank Nashookpuk's home to thank him for the rescue.
"I had expected it to be a warm but stoic 'taikuu,' but when I looked at him the full impact of knowing that if he had not done what he did, with the help of Guy and Ripley, I would be under the ice right now and of the pain and confusion my family would be feeling right now, I felt strong emotion," Hess wrote. "I cried a little bit."
Neither a $2,500 camera nor two lenses Hess was carrying during the accident survived the plunge. A second camera, as well as his iPhone, were still working.
By Friday morning, a GoFundMe account set up to help replace Hess' destroyed camera gear had surpassed its original goal of $5,500, just two days after it was posted.