Polar Bears

It was a mild day considering it was the last of February. Wind would make a big difference, but mercifully, it was calm. Not a bad day for a multi-hundred yard swim in the forty degree water of Lake Tahoe.



The 2009 Lake Tahoe Snow Festival runs for ten days along the North Shore. A featured annual event is the polar bear swim at Gar Woods Grill & Pier in Carnelian Bay. Around ten women and thirty men paid thirty dollars each to enter the spectacle. Onlookers sat along the pier, crowded the Gar Woods deck, and pressed close upon the beach, point-and-shoots, DSLRs, and HD camcorders at the ready. The Wet Woody machine was going full tilt, keeping the masses happy.



The course was not trivial, beginning on a rocky beach that requires ten yards of tippy-toeing before you can even think of swimming. In the distance, two red buoys marked the half-way, bobbing in the waves of two jet skis that patrolled the perimeter, dragging pool floats in anticipation of a rescue.



The ten or so women went first. It became clear that some of these people had no intention of actually swimming in the lake, particularly those that had just come from a hot tub. Sanity prevailed. But then you noticed that others knew exactly what they were doing and were making a beeline for the buoys.



A woman with a painted red nose and yellow cap won by two body lengths then lingered in inch deep water. It could be exhaustion or maybe getting out isn't all that easy.



One women who went the distance was still swimming the backstroke, very slowly. In the spirit of moving things along, the men took their marks.



Being at least thirty in number, they churned the water more than the women, spreading out almost immediately into the serious and the timid.



As with the women, some reconsidered. Icy cold water takes some getting used to even if you are otherwise in good shape. If you don't train for it, it is not likely you will not last more than seconds. Anticipating the worst, an NTPUD ambulance was parked nearby.



I couldn't tell you who won the men's race as the full-coursers blended in with the this-was-a-big-mistakers. The main activity at the finish was getting people reshoed, not getting them bundled up. When you are in forty degree water, forty-five degree air probably feels pretty good.



On the way out, I noticed that the hot tub girls were back in the hot tub, along with some hot tub boys. The "insecurity" guard was encouraging those with drinks in their hands to knock them back before leaving the premises. The carnival atmosphere endured.

More and bigger photos can be seen at my Flickr photo set.