This is the time of year when a lot of Minnesotans plan a midwinter getaway.
He’s leading a shirtless hike and a dip in Lake Superior. In February.
The “Wim Hof Weekend” is inspired by a Dutch cold exposure guru.
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It could be a weekend at a resort where you can take a dip at the beach. Or a mountain hike in your shorts. Where you can take some time to just breathe.
Happily, you can do exactly that this month without leaving Minnesota, at something called the “Wim Hof Weekend,” Feb. 21-23 at the Caribou Highlands Lodge near the base of the Lutsen Mountains resort.
At this time of year, people typically are booking rooms at that lodge to go skiing.
But the schedule for attendees of the Wim Hof Weekend includes an invigorating dip in Lake Superior and a shirtless uphill hike into the Lutsen Mountains in your shorts. There’s also guided breathwork and sauna sessions.
The cost is $850 a person, including food and lodging for two nights, or $225 for a one-day ticket to the activities.
If these chilly activities sound a little disagreeable, you’re probably not a follower of Wim Hof.
Hof is a Dutch extreme athlete and cold exposure guru known as “The Iceman.” He’s the creator of the “Wim Hof Method” of cold exposure, breathing and mindfulness techniques that supposedly reduce stress levels, improve sleep, strengthen your immune system and heighten your energy and focus.
The Minnesota Wim Hof Weekend is being led by Nick Fox.
Fox is a Minneapolis man and cold exposure fan who went to Poland in 2022 to complete his certification to become Minnesota’s first Wim Hof Method instructor.
Now he has a business called FoxFire Breathworks that offers saunas, breathwork instruction and cold exposure in workshops around the Midwest.
He operates a sauna at Lake Nokomis and is part of a group of people who spend time immersing themselves in an ice hole at the lake.
“I’ve probably given over 1,000 ice baths,” said Fox, 42. “I call myself the ice doula.”
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Fox used to be a high school teacher and is a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve with experience that includes being a combat engineer in Iraq and teaching history at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
He also describes himself as a “full-time pulmonaut.”
“It’s someone who is interested in exploring where breath can take you if you use it for your primary source of energy,” Fox said.
Fox said that at the Wim Hof Weekend, he’s planning a couple of group dips in Lake Superior and a 45-minute uphill hike where the participants are invited to wear shoes and shorts but no shirts.
“If you can do a two- or three-minute ice bath, I can take you up a mountain in 45 minutes,” Fox said. “Your skin is going to be cold, but you won’t be cold. Your body can do it, but your mind is going to get in the way.”
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Fox said there is room for 25 people at the Wim Hof Weekend.
“When you come together and do it as a group, it’s a deeper sensation,” he said.
Erin Hutton, a brewery owner from New Prague, Minn., plans to be there. He takes cold showers and shovels snow without a shirt on.
“It gets me out of my comfort zone,” he said. “It helps you push yourself past things you think you can’t do.”
Fox said he’s not sure how many participants he’ll get at this year’s Wim Hof Weekend, but “I think in three or four years, it will sell out.”
“This will be a catalyst for understanding the power of breath and the power of the cold,” he said.
Whether your library is in St. Paul, Minneapolis or Chaska, there’s a pretty good chance you were reading Kristin Hannah’s latest.