In one of those rare confluences of space and time, the winter solstice for 2025 took place at 9:03am this year, which was within striking distance from our regular swim time. So I revised the meetup time to 8:30am to consolidate the last autumn swim of 2025 with the first winter swim of 2025 in one outing – i.e. getting in the lake in the fall and exiting in winter.
Lucky for us, it was a perfect morning with clear and sunny skies, a calm 35F lake, and a complete lack of any wind to torment us in or out of the water. So we suited up in our winter gear and timed our entry to just before 9:00am. I ended up making it out to the 1/8 mile point before running into an impassible area blocked off by ice. But I looped back a bit farther out into the lake where the the lake was a bit slushy but readily navigable.
Post-swim was surprisingly uneventful in the 19F air. This was because we had no wind and lots of sunshine to temper the dreaded afterdrop. Nevertheless, we didn’t waste any time changing into our dry clothes and hustling back to the merciful comfort of our heated cars.
Happy Winter 2025/2026!
