Nick Lees: Edmonton firefighter looking to set new world record by surviving three-hour ice bath

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An Edmonton firefighter is training to break the Guinness Book of World Records mark by surviving in an ice bath for three hours.

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“I plan to stay in a tub full of ice for three hours and set a new world record that I believe would bring interest to helping advance science,” says 38-year-old Wes Bauman.

“I will make my attempt in support of a firefighters’ Muscular Dystrophy children’s fundraiser during the Oct. 23 Edmonton Craft Beer Festival at the Expo Centre. I am fairly confident of success.”

Personally, I thought he was nuts. That’s until he told me his story.

“It was about halfway into my nearly 14-year firefighting career when I began suffering panic attacks and I became riddled with autoimmune diseases and inflammatory disorders,” he says. “I was diagnosed with post traumatic stress (PTSD).

“Counselling sessions and pills didn’t work and when I had dark thoughts, I began intuitively jumping into a cold shower, or a cold lake if there was one nearby. I found my dependencies, negative thoughts and autoimmune disorders disappeared.

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“It was about a year into this practice a friend told me about a Dutch guy by the name of Wim Hof, also known as The Ice Man.”

Dutch-born Hoff has developed a combination of meditation, breathing exercises and exposure to cold that can help people regulate stress levels.

“With training, it enables ordinary folks to control their minds and bodies and accomplish exceptional feats,” says the firefighter.

Wim has logged some 26 world records, Bauman explains, climbing some of the highest mountains in the world wearing only shorts and shoes, including the 7,200-metre point on Mt. Everest.

“He has also stood in a container while immersed in ice cubes for nearly two hours; swimming below ice for 57.5 meters (188 feet, 6 inches) and in 2011, running without water, an entire marathon in the Namibian Desert, one of the hottest and driest deserts in the world. He also ran a half marathon north of the Arctic Circle in bare feet.

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Bauman says Wim is helping change paradigms in modern science in the laboratory, such as proving humans can voluntarily access and influence our anatomic nervous system, immune system and endocrine system.

“I have travelled to see Wim the Ice Man twice, once in Vancouver and once in Poland during winter, and I have added his breathing technique to my cold therapy,” says Bauman.

“It’s been magical ever since. I believe there are parallels between handling sub-zero weather conditions, high altitudes and free-diving and have myself dived to 70 feet (21 metres.) on a single breath and climbed many mountains wearing only shorts.”

In February last year, Bauman submerged himself in ice up to his neck for the annual firefighters’ rooftop campout fundraiser to help kids with muscular dystrophy.

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“I had planned on staying in for an hour to gain more media exposure for our cause, but at the last moment, I decided to challenge the world record, which was two-hours-and eight minutes at the time.

“I logged two-hours-and 20-minutes and knew I could have stayed longer, but being it was the year 2020. I thought it a good number to finish on.”

While training for this year’s rooftop event, eventually cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bauman again broke his own ice-bath world record by posting two hours and 45 minutes.

He plans set a mark of three hours at the Oct. 23 event, drawing attention to the firefighters’ MD 50-50 raffle.

But he has a plan to show that three hours in ice has not frozen his brain by memorizing, and then being tested on, the sequence of cards in “a deck or two.”

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The firefighter plans to return to Poland to take another course in February and qualify as a Wim Hof Method Instructor.

Plan on putting on 15-to-20 pounds

Leading up to his record attempt, the five-feet-10-inch-tall, 175-pouind firefighter plans to consume between 4,000 and 6,000 calories of food each day and take progressively longer ice baths.

“I’m normally between 14-and 15-per-cent body fat, but plan on putting on 15-to-20 pounds,” says Bauman. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if I could only five to 10 pounds. The cold burns fat like nothing else.”

Encouraged by Hof, Bauman hopes to attract a University of Alberta science professor and students to study their exposure therapy and breathing techniques as a treatment for PTSD.

“Diaphragmatic breathing and non-forced gradual cold exposure can teach people how to consciously regulate their body’s systems, once thought impossible,” he says.” We believe it to be worthy of more investigation.

“As firefighters we are going to an ever-increasing number of drug overdoses and suicides. I know from my own experience we can go into the deepest depths of ourselves and take back control.

“My goal is to prove to everyone that none of us are not as helpless as we might think. We need to learn how to trigger the power we all have within us.”