First Swim at the North Pole

Lewis Pugh took the plunge and became the first man to swim at the North Pole!

The 36-year-old Londoner spent almost 19 minutes at minus 1.8C as he front crawled for a full kilometre - more than half a mile in the coldest water a human has ever swum.

"It was like jumping into a dark black hole," he said. "The pain was immediate and felt like my body was on fire.

"I was in excruciating pain from beginning to end and I nearly quit on a few occasions. It was without doubt the hardest swim of my life."

But he said that a colleague ski-ing on pack ice alongside him looking out for hungry polar bears spurred him on.

Link - Thanks David R!


I once swam 300m through a glacial pond on a $100 bet. . .it was the coldest thing I ever felt. My head went numb, and when I got out, every muscle in my body contracted and cramped into some of the most excruciating pain of my life. I wouldn't recommend it. Especially since the girl welshed, and I never saw the money.
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Is it just me that doesn't understand, but i KNOW that minus 1 degree Celcius is not THAT cold.
I once swam in a lake in May (where I live, the water is freezing that time of year, but not frozen.) and it was so cold I got a brain freeze, so I got out. But it was COLD.
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Am I the only one to think "what an idiot"? What possible benefit can anyone get from this. It's not even as if it's like mountain climbing where you have the tenuous excuse "because it's there."
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