ICY PLUNGE
Wednesday December 21 2011
A Dingle woman plans a New Year's Eve swim in Donegal in to hope of being selected to swim the icy Bering Straits. WHILE many will be getting ready for a night out on the tiles on New Year's Eve, a woman from Dingle will be preparing to take part in an 'iceswim' in Donegal. As if that doesn't sound cold enough, the Donegal swim could be a stepping stone to a much colder swim in the Bering Straits between Russia and Alaska.
Endurance swimmer Nuala Moore is set to take on a gruelling swim in the icy waters off Donegal on December 31 along with fellow endurance swimmer and Donegal native Ann Marie Ward. Ramar Kai, the founder of the international organisation for the ice swimming discipline will also fly in to attend the swim.
"There are many challenges both mental and physical involved with completing this swim and we will have a team onshore to monitor our progress," Nuala told The Kerryman this week.
"We will probably be doing the swim in Mullroy Bay and we are expecting a water temperature of five degrees – the cold water puts immense pressure on the body and this type of ice swim is extremely dangerous but we feel we can do it," she said.
Nuala has many accolades under her belt; including having completed a swim around Ireland, but the swim in Donegal is potentially a stepping stone towards completing one of the most challenging swims in the world.
"Ramar Kai is flying in to see how we do as he is putting together a relay team to swim the Bering Straits from Siberia to Alaska," Nuala explained.
The Bering Straits separates Russia from the USA and many will be familiar with this most unforgiving of seas as it the setting for the Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch series. Water temperatures vary between 4 and 8 degrees and the feat of swimming across it with a relay team has never been done before.
"Ramar, who himself founded the international ice swimming association, has completed a swim in the Antarctic. If we are successful with this swim in Donegal he may select us to swim the Bering Straits which is 85 miles in length," said Nuala.
"Fingers crossed it will all go well on New Year's Eve and our team hope to keep everyone updated as we have set up a Facebook page to cover the event."
"It is an incredible honour to attempt this ice swim and to make the international relay team which will go on to swim the Bering Straits in July or August would be a dream come true," she said.
- MARIAN O'FLAHERTY
