Sub-zero dunking
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Shivering in shock and awe with the Nordic ice bathers
FIRST COMES the shock wave from immersion: “Waaay too cold,” the body screams to the brain as it releases an invigorating rush of noradrenaline.
This should trigger a natural flight reaction from the source of discomfort, but now the true grit of the ice bather kicks in. No one retreats from the dark hole on the frozen river – these people came intent on getting their sub-zero soaking.
“We would like to hold the world championships here, but for that we have to develop our club some more,” says Olaf Schneider, a German who has lived for three years in northern Sweden, initially attracted here by the cold and snow.
“I hadn’t been here a year when a friend said ‘Come on, we’re going to Finland for winter swimming!” he relates.
That was his introduction to Jarrko Enqvist, a Finn who claims to have imported winter bathing to Sweden and who founded the first dedicated ice-bathing club here, the appropriately named Dark & Cold association.
As well as hosting competition events, the club in Skelleftea in the northern province of West Bothnia welcomes newcomers with a promise of an extraordinary experience.
“The energy boost that winter swimming gives, as well as the awareness of your own body and the sense of connectedness with nature, is hard to describe in words,” asserts their website.
Skelleftea is the only place in Sweden to offer winter swimming, and to inch towards that dream of hosting a world championship, the club also offers newcomer courses.
Stage one of the training requires you to overcome natural reactions, including getting cramps and an intense desire to escape from the cold. Some of it your instructor can tell you. The rest must be learned the hard way.
Enqvist pulls away a tarpaulin from the rectangular swimming area in the middle of a vast white expanse of lake. Cut with an excavator, the hole is dotted with sheets of thin ice that his wife Tiina scoops out with a rake.
Now you are good to go.
Once immersed, you work through the initial spasms as every muscle in your body clenches in protest.
Your heart pumps and your breathing speeds up until you are almost panting. Rein it in, Enqvist urges, and you gradually slow your gasps to a steady in-out rhythm.
Then comes the “relaxation” into the new environment, and you do start to feel some relief, although that may be due to the spreading numbness.
Your feet grope for the sandy riverbed as if through a cushion, while an icy shroud grips every sinew and pore. Nonetheless, your breathing is now quieter and more measured.
The euphoria hits when you are back on terra firm but don’t linger outside, Enqvist warns, since you can be oblivious to the cold in those first minutes in the air.
Huddled deep in thick bathrobes, the group makes for the enticing smoking chimney on the club’s small sauna hut. They stand inside by the stove, muscles relaxing, the last needles melting away and body heat flowing.
Then comes a final elation as strong as the adrenaline surge as you plunge. And a triumphant bowl of blueberry soup that the club serves with every dip.
“Does anyone want another go before I cover up the hole?” Enqvist calls from the river. After a moment’s hesitation, Anna, a local tourist official trying this for the first time, shouts “Yes!”
Tiina was right. It is addictive.
IF YOU GO
