It’s not only the longest day of the year, but the coldest, too — 18 degrees, you think the weather forecast said? You stand on the snow-covered beach, barefoot, shivering. Is it from the cold, or the anticipation? You don’t have much time to dwell on it because now your friend is grabbing your hand. A stranger grabs the other. Together, you shriek and laugh and run full-tilt into the icy waves.

“Going in takes courage,” said Karyn Stillwell, yoga teacher, certified Wim Hof instructor, and locally-dubbed “Cold Water Queen.”

“Even though you’re only in the cold water for a short time, that courage quite literally follows you out of the water into the rest of your life.”

The Wim Hof method is based on three pillars: cold therapy, breathing, and commitment. It was first created by a Dutch extreme athlete of the same name, who garnered the nickname “Iceman” after breaking a number of records related to cold exposure. These included running a half-marathon above the Arctic Circle barefoot and swimming almost 75 yards beneath ice.

Stillwell discovered the Wim Hof method two years ago when she went to visit relatives in Hawaii. Two family members practice the Wim Hof method and convinced her to try an ice bath for the first time.

“The thought of getting into ice was totally insane,” Stillwell recalled. “I’m a warm weather person. I like heat!” However, her experience was unforgettable.

“It blew my mind the way I felt afterwards,” she said. “I’d never done anything like it.”

When she returned to Port Townsend, Stillwell devoured all the information she could on the Wim Hof method. She read his book, and even started turning her shower to cold.

“I experimented with different ice tubs and things, but nothing quite felt right. Finally, it hit me: We live on the Salish Sea. It’s cold year-round.” She and a couple of her friends plunged all through the fall and into the winter. On the 2022 winter solstice, she organized a community cold plunge on Facebook, not truly expecting anyone to show up. But people did. Stillwell organized another community cold plunge for New Year’s Eve.

“150 people showed up, if not more,” she said with amazement.

It was addictive. People wanted more. Since then, Stillwell has gone from monthly plunges, including a February full moon plunge and a spring equinox plunge, to bi-weekly.

“I call them happy hour plunges,” she said.

They are held every Tuesday and Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Fort Worden beach, between the kitchen shelter and the Marine Science Center.

“We usually do a little warmup and talk about the benefits of cold water immersion first,” Stillwell explained. “Then we hold hands, jump in. We come together from all walks of life to do this hard thing. It’s beautiful.”

The health benefits include reducing inflammation, boosting the immune system and metabolism, and triggering the brain to release a cocktail of chemicals such as dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins.

“It increases your alertness, makes you feel more awake, and improves your mood,” Stillwell said.

Another benefit is vein vasoconstriction.

“When you immerse your body in cold water, the muscles in your cell walls constrict and push much of your blood into your core in order to keep your organs at a nice, stable body temperature,” Stillwell said. “When the muscles release the contraction to warm the body back up, it exercises them. It’s almost like a cardiovascular workout.” 

These benefits are not just physical.

“Going into the cold water builds community. It boosts your confidence and makes you feel connected,” Stillwell said.

“It helps you be more courageous in all areas of your life. If you know you can do this, what is stopping you from doing other hard things?”

Stillwell compares the Wim Hof method to her yoga practice. Both are a form of hormesis, the biological idea that a short-term, mild stressor creates a positive adaptation in the body. If that stressor was more intense or lasted longer, it would be detrimental. But experiencing the hormetic stressor within ideal limits builds health and endurance.

“It’s like intermittent fasting,” she explained. “Think of [cold plunging] as intermittent hypothermia.”

Cold plunging, like yoga, is also a mind-body practice.

“When you go into the cold water, you have to focus. You have to go within. You can’t be distracted or let your brain go elsewhere. This focus, just like in yoga, puts you in a state of relaxation.”

This is where breathing — a pillar of both Wim Hof and yoga — comes into play.

“You use the breath to bridge the gap between your body and your mind,” said Stillwell.

“It’s a form of meditation. The breath is the thing that turns a fight-or-flight reaction into a rest-and-digest reaction. It’s going from a sympathetic state to a parasympathetic state.”

Stairwell acknowledges that cold water immersion is not a contest to see how long one can endure the cold. She emphasizes that it is deliberate and gradual.

“We build up time in the water as our bodies adapt,” she explained.

Stillwell offers monthly workshops in the Wim Hoff method in addition to the bi-weekly cold plunges. For more information, visit stillwellyoga.com.