Amazing cold tolerance

[WeRtheOcean]

I found this on YouTube:

What amazes me is that you can see ice floating in the water, as well as a snowy landscape, yet she is swimming in what appears to be a long-sleeved swimsuit, nothing more. And yet we have all heard horror stories about the perils of hypothermia, even in waters much less cold than that. I would like to see some discussion of the physiology of what she is doing, and whether it really is as risky as it looks to me.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Natalia Avseenko has some videos that are even more amazing.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

It's a bunch of clips edited together. She may well have been shivering under a blanket holding a hot cup of coffee between takes. If not, she has amazing control over her body. There are Buddhist monks who can raise their body temperature significantly; maybe she has a similar practice. Either way, it's a nice video in a beautiful setting!

Best regards,
DDM

 

[Germie]

The video is made in Versasca, divesite Ponte di Salti. The water can reach 17 degrees Celsius there in summer, so people go swimming there also then. I dove there in september, water was 13 degrees then.
If you use the 'Wim Hof' method you can learn to stay a couple of minutes in 4 degrees C water.
Here some people go swimming also in winter (water is 4-5 degrees now). They do it for just some minutes. For me too cold, haha.

 

[Schwob]

What's that tank at 04:37?
O2?
What tank size?

 

[Germie]

What's that tank at 04:37?
O2?
What tank size?

A normal scubatank, size is hard to see, but not that big, 8 liter maybe. To dive this site you can do 3 dives of 45 minutes on 1 single 10 liter.
It is in a river, there can be current. Max depth 7-10 m. You swim more or less from waterfall to waterfall.

It is called riverdiving. In the verzasca river are 3 divesites and also some in the Maggia river. These are 2 rivers not far from each other. Surrounded by high mountains. The entrances are hard sometimes and it is recommended to take a small cylinder and a wetsuit. I never dive in a wetsuit, but bought a second hand one for these dives. In the lakes at 2200-2350m I took my drysuit again, haha. Another 'strange' advice is to take just 1 regulator. No more drag than needed. Here a guide (in german) about diving these sites: Valle Verzasca I Leitfaden für Flusstauchen

Here some pictures and something in dutch about that divesite. The pictures in this article are made near the pont where the video is taken also.
When there is a lot of current, there are hooks to make lines on. Rivierduiken Zwitserland - Duiken Magazine
It is an amazing place to dive.

 

[Schwob]

@Germie Thanks for the links!

 

[JMBL]

To Germie : Thanks indeed !

 

[Jiminy]

You never know there could be another iceman

2011 Hof broke the ice bath endurance record twice, in Inzell in February and in New York City in November, setting a new Guinness World Record of 1 hour, 52 minutes, and 42 seconds

Wim Hof - Wikipedia

 

[northernone]

You can condition your body to a certain degree to manage cold. Maybe some natural disposition to it as well.

I use to be able to survive repetitive dives in ice water, no wetsuit.

The risks of hypothermia are real, as commonly described.

Cameron