John Mark Earle soaking in frozen Peace River (photo courtesy of John Mark Earle)

By Liam Verster

Peace River Swimmer

Peace River man hopes to inspire others through winter ice baths

Nov 22, 2020 | 5:00 AM

John Mark Earle is going for a personal record of 150 consecutive days of swimming in the frozen river and lakes this winter, and hopes his story will inspire others to push themselves as well.

Earle, who completed 121 days of swimming in the frozen Peace River and nearby lakes last year, is again testing his limits.

He’s already completed the first 32 days of his freezing dips, but because he’s been in the river, where the current makes his body’s temperature drop faster than standing water, he’s only been able to stay in for a few minutes, with the his longest time so far being about 6 minutes.

Earle says he knows from experience that he can stay in the freezing water longer than that, so long as he has the right mentality going into it.

“On my 100th consecutive day during last winter’s challenge, I decided I was going to stay in for 20 minutes and 20 seconds for the year 2020,” says Earle, noting that his 100th day happened to line up with New Years Day.

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“At that point my longest had been 15 or 16 minutes, and I had only done longer than 10 minutes a few times, so it was a pretty big jump up from what I had usually been doing.”

He adds that he will move to a lake later in the winter, as he did last year when he was able to hit that 20 minute mark, but for now he’s not trying to set any record times in the water as he builds up his tolerance.

Despite the difficulties in the first few months of swimming in the freezing river, he knows that, like all things, it will become easier with time. Earle says his big goal this year is to instill that message on anyone who hears his story.

“I’ve had numerous people reach out to me and say ‘Hey, I saw you doing this and I was inspired to do’ any number of things,” says Earle.

“One was from a woman in Nova Scotia, who said she has agoraphobia, and needed to get something from a store. She drove to the store, was sitting in the parking lot, anxious to go in, and she said ‘If he can get in that cold water every day, I can go into the store.'”

He says by showing that he can face something as extreme as soaking in the freezing water, it can help others to face their own challenges, no matter what they happen to be.

Last year Earle also collected donations for the local food bank during his 121 days, and though he hasn’t arranged for anything similar to that this year, he is considering finding a good cause to support somehow. In the meantime, he just wants to inspire others to push themselves.

Earle adds that he doesn’t think his 150 consecutive days of ice baths will set any world record, or that he is swimming in any record low temperature water, as right now the temperature of the river is slightly above freezing.

However, he does say he may be setting a record for swimming in the coldest air temperature, which he says poses the greatest risk than any of the other factors.

“Last year there was a couple of days where it was just below and then colder than -40, and on one of those days I did get a little bit of what is called ‘frost nip,’ where your skin starts to freeze and turn white,” says Earle.

“That only happened the one time, and then I made sure I didn’t make the same mistake, which was thinking that because I could stand the cold in the water that I could just tough it out in the air.”

He adds there’s the added risk of the blood just below the surface of his skin thickening because of the cold, then rushing into his core when he gets out and starts to warm up, which could be dangerous.

Earle doesn’t swim alone, as he is joined by his family or friends who help time him, taking pictures for his Instagram page, monitor him to make sure he’s safe, and be ready with towels and blankets for when he gets out of the water.

He says people can come join him if they like, adding that he will be doing trips around Alberta, to do ice baths in other communities, including Grande Prairie. Though he’s unsure of which dates he will be in the Swan City at this point , he does encourage others to come out and dip into the freezing water with him.