This was definitely a first: XC ski and swim in the lake all on the same day! Since abandoning our open water swims (last solid swim was Nov 16) we have played with the idea of swimming one more time – in December. Today, we made it into the rather cold lake (4 degrees or so) after hitting the ski trails in the morning. It was a gorgeous sunny day (unfortunately with little warming effect on the lake temperature!) and everything was perfect: Calm waters, good company, lots of supporters on shore, lots of smiles despite the cold. It turns out that cold water only really hurts your hands … our core bodies, faces and even feet caused less problems. Everybody survived!
Check out the pictures here