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Both Brynn and Moore recently moved to Newport —Brynn from Stowe and Moore from Telluride, Colo. “I saw this other woman coming out of the lake on one freezing day and thought, Wow! There’s another one!” says Moore, who didn’t know of Brynn’s swimming background at the time. Four or five other women—ages mid-twenties to midseventies—soon joined what became a weekly group swim. “We started in Memphremagog and we’ll just keep moving around each week looking for lakes that are not frozen,” Moore says.

On Februar y 26, Brynn, Moore, and the others will drop into a 25-meter pool cut into the ice on Lake Memphremagog in the 8th running of the Lake Memprhemagog Winter Swimming Festival. Some may do just one event. Others are signed up to race as far as 200 meters. “We have a team, the Shark Bait Sheilas. Charlotte, who is a Kiwi, came up with the “Sheila” term and I’ve already ordered shark hats,” says Moore with a giggle.

WINTER SWIMMING’S PIED PIPER

Newport’s Shark Bait Sheilas. The Fair Haven Jailbirds. The Muffin Tops of Middlebury. The Red Hot Chili Dippers of Burlington. Around Vermont, more and more swimmers (and dippers) are heading into the open water yearround, when the ice isn’t a factor. “I see a growing trend,” says Phil White who puts on the Lake Memphremagog Winter Swim Week.

White, 73, sporting a long white beard that makes him a dead ringer for St. Nick, is the pied piper of open water swimming in Vermont. As a former member of Newport’s Chamber of Commerce and a director of the IROC fitness center, White launched a series of athletic events that became a business: Kingdom Games. There was The Moose bike ride through the NEK; and races such as the Dandelion Run and Fly to Pie. And then there were his swim events, which grew to include open water swims on Lake Memprhemagog of up to 25 miles as well as his summer Kingdom Swim Week where swimmers, accompanied by paddlers, swim all the lakes in the NEK.

But the most improbably successful event he initiated was the Lake Memphremagog Winter Swim Festival, an annual late February swim race that takes place in a two-lane, 25-meter ‘pool’ that’s cut out of the ice in Lake Memphremagog

“It started as a bad joke, took a wrong turn, and it became an adventure,” White likes to say, with a chuckle, by way of

The hat contest — a lap sporting your most creative design — kicks off the Winter Swim. Here, Karyn Stannard of Fair Haven seems to have found her own octopus’ garden. Photo by Robbie and Robert Bailey

explanation. “In 2014 I was watching these guys use this huge saw to cut ice blocks out of the lake to use for an ice maze or igloo or something,” he says. “So I took a picture of it, posted it on Facebook with a caption as a joke, saying ‘Anyone want to come swim?’”

Remarkably, White got a response. Before long, he had connected with the new U.S. Winter Swimming Association. “They had just formed but didn’t have a venue. We had a venue but no idea how to put on an event like this,” he says.

The first year was a struggle. The US Winter Swimming Association contingent didn’t arrive until the day of the event. The ice was so thick White had to find extra long chain saws. The morning of the event it was 10 degrees, and the surface had frozen again overnight. He had to recruit locals to chop the surface with axes. Still, swimmers showed up, coming from as far as Europe and the Eastern Bloc countries where winter swimming is a serious sport.

The next year, White resolved to make the event fun for the less serious swimmer, as well. The first event would be a 25-meter “hat race” —what is now the most hotly contested event of all. “The idea was for people to make these crazy hats and if they wore the hats and did the breaststroke, they wouldn’t dunk their heads in the water which makes it much safer,” he says. He started an awards pajama party with dinner following at the East Side Restaurant. “If you show up in your pajamas, you get a free shot of Barr Hill Vodka,” he explains. “After a cold-water swim so many endorphins are released it’s always a great party.” Awards took the form of beef jerky or maple syrup.

Even the safety protocols are infused with humor. Volunteers who walk the swimmers to and from the changing house (to ensure they are not hypothermic or slip on the ice), are “Escorts.” Others who disrobe the swimmers and help them dress again at the other end of the pool are “Strippers.” And during each lap, volunteers walk alongside the swimmers with a pool hook, in case anyone needs to be pulled out. They are, of course, “Hookers.”

Brynn and others helped him organize the event and White reached out to other international swimmers with ties to Vermont. The second year, there were around 30 paying participants. By 2020 there were 90 and for 2022, White had to limit the field to 135 and it has sold out. Ages range from Derby’s 14-year-old marathon swimmer Margaret Rivard to Anne Coen, 79, of Canton, Ohio.

The event draws serious winter swimmers such as 17-year-old Vera Rivard (above right) who has swum the English Channel. But ringleader Phil White (at left, among four swimmers) keeps it fun. Photos R. & R. Bailey

THE LOWS AND HIGHS OF COLD WATER

White’s Memprhemagog Winter Swimming Festival may be the only one of its kind in North America, but it is part of a growing international league. “Ice Swimming,” is a term first coined in 2009 by the International Ice Swimming Association which was founded the same year. The sport is defined as “swimming in a water temperature of 5.0C / 41.0F unassisted, with a silicon cap, pair of goggles and standard swimming costume.” In other words, no wetsuits. IISA focuses on more extreme events such as “ice miles,” while the International Winter Swimming Association (IWSA) puts on shorter events that usually follow typical swim race formats: 25-, 50-, or 100-meter lengths, relays and a choice of strokes.

Two Charlotte Vt residents Julie Postlewaite, 49, and Susan Blood, 54, — went on to compete in the IWSA 2020 Winter Swimming World Championships in Bled, Slovenia after having attended the Lake Memphremagog Winter Swim. Postlewaite hopes to swim in the World Championships in Russia in March of 2022 and has been training by swimming in Lake Champlain every day, yearround.“That January day when it was -10 degrees and the schools were closed? We went in. It felt good,” she says.

But as any experienced ice swimmer will warn, cold-water swimming is something that takes training. “It’s not something I share with my students,” says Karyn Stannard, an assistant principal at Middlebury Union Middle School. She lives in Fair Haven, Vt. and swims until her nearby lakes freeze over. “It can be dangerous if you don’t do it correctly. I won’t swim with anyone who hasn’t been practicing this,” says Stannard, who usually swims in Sunset Lake in Benson or Lake Bomoseeen with her husband and two brother-in-laws. When Stannard first started swimming later in the season she used a wetsuit and gloves. “But after I started reading about ice swimming, I started shedding gear. I now swim with just a bathing suit.” The reason: it takes a while for a wetsuit to warm up and it’s often hard to get off when you get out.

“Ice swimming is pretty exciting and the first few times it is a little frightening,

too” says Brynn. “But once I got in and relaxed and focused on my breathing, it was just a really incredible experience. It’s very calming. And it’s beautiful out there. A lot of us are deterred from trying things because we think we can’t. And I think the thing that struck me is this is actually achievable.”

Brynn recommends taking it slowly and working your way up to colder and colder temperatures and staying in longer and longer. Being able to warm up in a car or house after is important and expect your body to stay cold for some time after a swim, or experience an “after drop,” in temperature. Brynn also notes that the cold water saps your energy: “I swam 400 meters in a pool in November and it took me 5 minutes, 41 seconds. A few days later I swam just as hard in 39-degree water and it took me nearly 7 minutes.”

She cautions people to read and learn before trying this. “When you come across something that your mind and your body aren’t used to, the initial response is fear, anxiety and discomfort and you have short, shallow breaths,” Brynn says. However, she adds “after repeated exposures to the cold water in a controlled environment, and by focusing on relaxing, with long, slow inhales and exhales, you can reduce that incidence of shock.”

Nearly every ice swimmer will tell you that focusing on your breath is critical. “You really have to train your body and breath,” says Moore who has been practicing the Wim Hof Method and teaches it to some of her clients.

Before her swims she does 30 to 40 minutes of rigorous yoga to warm up her core and 30 rounds of deep breaths, followed by a long inhale and exhale, repeated three times. “By then my cardiovascular system is ready and after two minutes the water feels like a warm comforter. I don’t feel the cold anymore.”

For Moore, the practice has been a healing process she recommends to clients as well. “I used to have a fair amount of PTSD. I don’t seem to have those symptoms anymore,” she says. “A lot of mental health issues are caused by inflammation and the cold water helps reduce that. And it produces endorphins and all these feel-good hormones. Plus, you’re not out there doing it alone so when you come out of the water there’s this sense of belonging and feeling part of a community,” she says.

“You have so much energy. All your filters are down. You just get to be your wild self. It’s really rejuvenating for anyone who is going through any kind of suffering because if you can do this, you know you can get through it.”

Taking the Plunge

Why so many are following the Wim Hof Method.

If you see someone dunking themselves into a barrel of ice water in February, don’t be surprised. Cold water therapy, a regular practice in many countries that rim the Arctic Circle, has long been used by athletes to reduce inflammation. For instance, coaches such as former Stowe resident Bud Keene, long-time coach of such star snowboarders as Shaun White, swear by it to help relieve sore muscles.

Studies have shown that in addition to decreasing inflammation, that ice swimmers or people who regularly immerse themselves in cold water have a higher antioxidative defense system, lower blood pressure, and boosted immune system. Some studies have also shown ice swimming can increase insulin sensitivity, cause a drop in triglycerides, and increase cortisol, according to a meta study published in Dec. 2020 in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

For some, cold water immersion is about swimming, for others, such as Lynton Moore it is part of a practice that has been popularized by the Dutch extreme athlete and cold-water guru, Wim Hof. Hof has the record for running a marathon barefoot in snow and ice and swimming 57.5 meters under ice, and developed a practice of cold-water therapy, meditation, yoga and breathing now known as the Wim Hof Method. Today, he has an international network of instructors who make taking short ice baths a practice.

Rob Williams, 54, of Waitsfield is a Level 1 Wim Hof certified instructor. He teaches cold water therapy as part of his Peak Flow coaching program, which focuses on multiple modalities of breathwork. Williams, a former ultrarunner, hosts events all around the country and last summer was teaching the Wim Hof method at the Burlington Surf Club.

“The Wim Hof approach has three pillars – ice, mindset and breath—and it helps build resilience,” he explains. “As humans, we evolved to deal with all the stresses of the natural world – cold, hunger, you name it. But today, we have so little physical stress in our lives, by inducing this little bit of stress and training our bodies to deal with it in small doses, it creates a hormetic effect that’s been proven to help as we age,” says Williams, a journalism professor with a Ph.D. in history. Williams recommends beginning with cold showers. “Now, I have a trough from my yak farm that I fill with ice and a few times a week I’ll submerge in it and I come out feeling energized,” says Williams. “It really clears your mind.”

For Stowe’s Tim Bettencourt, the mind is what led him to become a certified Wim Hof instructor. “I’d hit this rock bottom stage in my life where I was drinking too much, not eating properly, had career troubles and I needed a change. When my father was diagnosed with Alzheimers, I started reading more and more about brain health. I discovered that inflammation has so much to do with how your brain functions and mental health, and repeated sessions in cold water can help” he says. “I’d also played football in college and knew what a few concussions can do to your brain.”

At the encouragement of a coach, Bettencourt changed his life drastically – working up to running the Catamount Ultra Marathon near his house in Stowe. He left his career as a financial analyst and started his Vigor Outdoors coaching program, using the outdoors as a gym and incorporating the Wim Hof Method as one of his offerings.

This year, he based some of his classes out of Spruce Peak at Stowe where he teaches the Wim Hof Method. Participants do a core workout in the fitness center, learn the breathing techniques and then submerge themselves in a barrel filled with ice. Classes are $30. “I wanted to keep this affordable,” he says. “I really think that anyone can benefit from this.”