It's been almost a week since I managed to swim outdoors in an ice hole. Visited the frozen Lake of Maidla with some buddies last time late at night and this has become a bit of a habit, ice swimming at night. We usually bring a few powerful flashlights which light up the path nicely, stright from our blanket for the clothes right up to the ladder leading into the dark waters. But dark times unfortunaly also mean less photos and hence, less posts.
Today I managed to get my stuff done quite early, so we hopped into the car and drove to Maidla, before it could get dark. The thermomometer showed a solid -4 degrees Celsius and the flag on the pole in front of the neighbouring house was flipping around, all while snowing large flakes, so this resulted in a nice mild snowstorm. Well, northerners barely call it a storm, but I surely did, when I climbed out of the ice hole later and felt the freezing bite.
Anyway, the side roads were quite snowed in, but a good all-season tire will keep you on the road solidly, while the ESP-sign on the dash blinked a few times on the main roads while driving on the soft and wet mush, where the snow had already melted.
No worries, I took my time driving cautiously, as I was not in a particular hurry, haven't swam in the lake for a week now and all that. Oh I have been taking ice cold showers all week, which give a bit of a different high, but now for the real thing.
I grabbed some photos of the lake before getting to the main course - you can see our usual swimming spot with the wooden bridge further away on the other side of the lake.
Some lads were apparently having a party across the lake on yet another side, as merry noises filled the air as they carried over across the lake.
Seems I was looking for excuses to delay jumping in and I realized this myself. The snowfall felt more colder now, so I did a few jumping jacks and sent my clothes flying away and climbed in.
Shit, why did I fear this so much? It's a always the same - the fear before is bigger than the event itself. The water felt warm until I was in up to my hips and then it was just a question of sliding in and viola, in I was. Wasn't hard at all, just like every other time, but our minds play tricks on us as long as we allow.
Here's me feeling cool in the pit. A bit over 4 minutes and that was it for today. I hear some buddies made a new swimming hole in the ice in Männiku lake which I would definitely love to try out, but perhaps not today. After all, tomorrow is a busy day, and I'm planning to have some sauna tonight - alternating sauna and cold showers multiple times in one evening in the past has shown that my body might lack energy the next day. But I will definitely pack my swimming gear soon again and looking to jump in the ice hole soon again.
