An Ice Mile is a one mile (1610 metres) swim at or under 5.0º Celsius with standard swim costume, cap and goggles. Records to early March 2014 indicate 116 recognised Ice Mile swims, with only about 80 Ice Mile swimmers worldwide.

In the context of these small numbers this continuation of the earlier series can be interpreted, depending on your viewpoint, as either:

A) A lot of noise about nothing.

or

B) An attempt to address some serious matters … before it is too late.

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In the first part of my 2014 Ice Mile series, I had two primary motivations for returning to complete the swim, one of which was that only having completed it would I feel free to speak about Ice Mile swimming and its dangers and some associated problems.

Since the swim I’ve had a brief email discussion with the IISA (International Ice Swimming Association). I’ve also contacted about twenty Ice Mile swimmers around the world to canvas their opinions. I’ve also been in contact with three four different medical doctors, three of whom are open water swimmers. All the very thoughtful and cogent responses I received have helped shape this series and I am very appreciative of the time and effort that went into everyone’s replies.  You all know who you are and have my gratitude.

I’ve held back on completing this series until I’d received sufficient feedback, had time to ruminate and until I was sure my swim was recognised (Ice Swim Number 109, which makes me, I think, Ice Mile swimmer 75, or something).

Let’s start with a recap. In 2013, at Fergal Somervilles’s first NIce Mile, we did not get the requisite 5º C. temperature. but along with five others, I finished the mile and suffered moderate hypothermia (a reminder that moderate hypothermia isn’t moderate but very pronounced). A sixth swimmer didn’t finish and was pulled from the water with  severe hypothermia.

A couple of weeks later, I swam half a mile at Fergal’s second Invitational Ice swim at Lough Dan. On the day I realised I did not have the full mile in me and only swam half the distance. I’ve never felt bad about not completing, it was the right thing to do.

In February 2014 I completed an Ice Mile with six others from a starting group of eight. Two pulled out themselves on safety grounds. I suffered worse hypothermia than I ever have previously. From my previous (significant) cold water experience I expected this outcome and forewarned one trusted safety paramedic.

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For the past couple of years I’ve had quite a few discussions with experienced swimming friends about the Ice Mile. Many excellent open and cold water distance swimmers have no desire to attempt the swim as many consider it either unnecessary or too dangerous. It’s the case from those discussions and the aforementioned emails that many, including multiple Ice  Mile swimmers, are of a similar opinion about the danger.

I’m going to address a number of different subjects in the latter parts of this series:

• The Irish context
• A discussion of the IISA’s rules
• The IISA’s (lack of) messaging about the dangers of Ice Mile swimming
• The inherent extreme danger of Ice Mile swimming

• I will also, (as I did with my MIMS 2013 coverage), not just rant but I will try to make some useful recommendations.

The entire subject is a bit disjointed so I will first give some local contextual explanation for some of this:

The Irish Context

Ireland has a significant number of those who have completed an official Ice Mile. (I am only talking about official Ice Miles. People stupid enough to try to do this without sufficient experience, safety and planning are beyond any reason and what I write will have no effect on them).

I mentioned above that on the first attempt one person wasn’t successful, any more than I was. On the first Lough Dan Invitational that same person wasn’t part of the group. I was invited but I was not capable on the day. Some doubt exists as to why the other swimmer wasn’t part of the first Lough Dan Invitational.

However, on the morning of the first Ice Mile Invitational, I and many others were witness to the most dangerous swim attempt I’ve yet seen.

That same person attempted an Ice Mile without any medical cover of which I’m aware, and insufficient and inexperienced safety cover. At one point the swimmer, having been in the water well over 40 minutes and a significant time from finishing, progressed no more than five metres in five minutes. It was easy to judge because it was two sides of a stationary pontoon only about ten metres away from where I was standing. Four Channel swimmers at least, (myself, Fergal, Tom Healy and Colm Breathnach) were all standing shouting on the beach to the two-man kayak crew to pull the swimmer). No course was marked, no paramedics were available, there was no way to determine if the distance had been swum. Indeed the swim stopped short of the distance where the people on the beach had shouting was the aim. There were major discrepancies with reported start and completion times in various formats with team members claiming a different (later) start time than what one of our group had witnessed.

I don’t believe that the swim was completed or successful.

The International Ice Swimming Association had (until recently) two Ambassadors for Ireland. One is Anne-Marie Ward, English and North Channel solo,  for whom there is widespread respect and genuine warmth in the Irish open water swimming community.

Yet public online congratulations were given that day from the second IISA Irish Ambassador for what I consider to be an at best questionable swim. Those who were actually successful with a marked course and full safety procedures and observation (Colm Breathnach, Fergal Somerville, Patrick Corkery, John Daly, Carmel Collins) were completely ignored by that same IISA “Ambassador“, a pattern that has since been repeated for other swimmers.

Only a  few weeks earlier, that same IISA Ambassador was evacuated by helicopter from a mountain lake in Kerry after very poor planning of their own ice Mile swim, pulling essential coastal rescue services away to cater for reckless safety planning.

Both swimmers now claim they are Ireland’s best Ice Mile swimmers. Without any irony.

Fraudulent swim claims, rampant egos and poor safety planning are the bane of open water swimming. It seems Ice Mileing in its youth suffers the same problems.

These two swims contrasted with the superlative planning by Fergal and Eastern Bay Swim Club, which included three paramedics, a nurse and a Doctor, multiple kayakers and a boat, and almost five non-swimmers to every swimmer,  had a significant if unpublished effect on the many of the Irish cold water swimmers and all present at the Lough Dan Invitational that day.

The IISA seemed uncaring about both negative events. I say seemed because I can’t be 100% certain. What I do know is the IISA are aware of both swims but did not react. Having being unsuccessful, I was not a member and had no communication with them in 2013, but I do know they were notified of this event in 2013 and invited to ask any of the affidavit signatories for their report. The IISA declined.

When I wrote in Part One of my own reason for completing the Ice Mile in 2014, it was in part because of these two swims.

One minor item I didn’t mention until now about my own 2014 swim occurred as I was swimming into the beach after finishing the 1600m. I was still compos mentis at that point, before I stood up and crashed into severe hypothermia, I recall thinking “I’ll call my blog post on this: Ireland’s worst Ice Miler” about myself. I also recall immediately dismissing that idea, because while I may not have done it easily, still I did do it, with plenty of witnesses. I knew I wasn’t the worst, if such a term can be used to describe fully completing such  a difficult challenge: I’d swam the full distance after having previously deciding to abandon a swim, and I hadn’t been MedEvaced.

The more years of writing on open water swimming I’ve been doing the greater the problem of frauds and ego now seems to me. Years of swimming  lone, seeing and participating in many various swims have  given me an acute sense of the requirement for a commitment to safety in both words and deeds.

In my emails with the IISA following my successful 2014 swim, I decided to nominate Fergal Somerville as an Ice Mile Ambassador for Ireland. I clearly implied that the number of Irish Ambassadors should stay at two people with Anne-Marie Ward continuing in the role alongside Fergal. Fergal has organised both Lough Dan Invitational Ice Miles and therefore has done more for Ice Mile swimming in Ireland than everyone else in Ireland combined. He has, along  with Eastern Bay Swimming Club and all the people involved, run a very safety conscious and well-managed event. He is good for the IISA and the serious nature of the pursuit of Ice Mile swimming.

An Ambassador means a representative. The role implies attributes of respect, diplomacy, honesty and trustworthiness. Fergal, the record-setter for the coldest ever North Channel solo, has certainly demonstrated his qualifications for this role. An Ambassador shouldn’t be a divisive figure or someone who treats others with disrespect and consequently brings the organisation they are representing into disrepute. But this is exactly what has happened

However, since I wrote the above paragraph, I’m certainly pleased to hear that Fergal has just been added as an Ice Mile Ambassador for Ireland and I congratulate the IISA on their willingness to listen. However Ireland now has three Ice Mile Ambassadors. That the IISA continues to retain someone of questionable commitment to safety planning or to the IISA itself, or who demonstrates a noted lack of support for Irish Mile Ice swimmers, is lamentable at best.

In the next part I’ll once start a comprehensive critique of the IISA’s rules and stated commitment to swimmer safety through existing rules.

Edit: In my emails to the IISA I also mentioned I’d be writing about Ice Mile swimming and about some negative aspects. I’d said that it wasn’t my intention wasn’t anything negative about the the IISA. Since then however I’ve had a lot of time to reflect and to discuss with others, and to look at the wider aspects of Ice Mile swimming. This series now does include negative aspects of the IISA and Ice Mile swimming. I believe very strongly that  the IISA’s current rules are insufficient and could possibly lead to tragedy.