Thanks for the update Al. Glad to hear he's gonna be OK and on his road to recovery. To get out of a solo fall on Shoestring and have it only be 100' is damn lucky. So he must have been down low.
And I agree with tradman - low angle ice can be quite difficult! No matter what feels comfortable actually always feels sketchy to me - if that makes sense.
I guess what I'm trying to say is having the angle of the ice steeper to where you can sink your tools and have good front point contact - and always three points of contact - makes soloing ice within your ability a relatively safe adventure.