The Ice Man that Baffled Scientists With His Ability to Withstand Fatally Freezing Conditions

According to scientists, Wim Hof should be dead for doing the following: running a half-marathon in the Arctic Circle in his bare feet, climbing the Everest in his shorts, and diving under the ice at the North Pole.

Here's a fascinating story about a 48-year-old Dutchman nicknamed "The Ice Man" for his uncanny ability of withstanding fatally freezing temperatures:

Normally, when a person is exposed to freezing temperatures for a prolonged period of time, the body goes into survival mode, as its liquids begin to freeze.

Frostbite sets in, and in order to save the major organs, the body sacrifices blood flow to the extremities, cutting circulation from the fingers, toes, ears and nose to keep the blood flowing to the organs necessary for survival.

If not treated immediately, the damage to these extremities is irreversible. The other danger is hypothermia, an abnormally low body temperature. At about 90 degrees, body functions start shutting down, and once that starts, you could be dead within minutes.

But Hof stayed in his tomb of ice for one hour and 12 minutes. Then, the ice was poured out of the tank, and Hof emerged, his skin still pink.

"He's not moving, he's not generating heat, he's not dressed for it, and he's immersed in ice water. And water will transmit heat 30 times faster than air. It literally sucks the life right out of you. And yet, despite all those negative factors, Wim Hof was very calm, very comfortable the entire time that he was immersed in that water," Kamler said.

Link (Photo: Henny Boogert)


Oh, I remember seeing this guy on a National Geographic Special about people who have extraordinary abilities like speed reading, instant math calculations, endurance and so on. I think it related to how the brain works in many ways. It was quite intriguing and awesome to see folks who you could possibly walk past on the street who have "super brains".
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I have also heard of monks in the Himalayas who through meditation are able to drastically raise their body temperature, and survive for several nights exposed to the elements at that altitude. They did a demonstration for scientists where they used their bodies to dry wet towels. You could see the steam coming off of them. It was pretty interesting.

This is probably a case of him subconsciously (or consciously if he has trained to do it) opening a metabolic pathway that is normally closed. It probably uses up a lot of energy, but it seems a much better way to survive extreme cold than sacrificing the extremities.
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# Wow Says:
March 8th, 2008 at 10:55 am

The article says “…climbing the Everest in his shorts”. Is that Mount Everest or just a local hill known as The Everest? hmmmm….

well he's dutch, and in the Netherlands we don't have hills, our biggest one is 300 meter :P. but its the everst.

i've seen te guy in action, standing in a ice tank for wel over an hour, than climbing out under own power. (2 meter high tank.
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