Swimmer Lewis Pugh braves near-freezing waters to protect them
The water flowing through the East Antarctic Ice Sheet was nearly as cold as water can be without freezing, just above 32 degrees Fahrenheit, yet Lewis Pugh wore only a Speedo, goggles, and a swim cap. He felt extremely fit, but he’d also bulked up slightly to keep himself warm on this unprecedented quest: swimming down a half-mile river that tunneled through the shifting glacial ice. He moved methodically in the water, careful not to stir the ice stalactites overhead. It was so cold that at first he could barely breathe, and after 10 minutes, his hands were swollen, their veins bright blue. On a rocky shoreline, he was greeted by his support team, among them Viacheslav “Slava” Fetisov, the retired Russian hockey star. “I pull him out from the water,” Fetisov recalls of that day several years ago. “I see his skin was so fragile. I said, ‘Oh my God, he’s unbelievable, this man.’”
