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For me, one of the best things since the end of the Covid pandemic has been the opportunity to sit in an audience and listen to someone tell their story. Given my interests, I'll often seek out those who have a love of the outdoors. They're enthusiasm has been infectious, causing me to seek out my own adventures. One talk that has had a big impact on me was given by Sara Barnes, author of "The Cold Fix"...

To set the scene, several years ago Sara, a freelance copy editor, underwent a bilateral tibial osteotomy in order to realign bones that were causing her crippling osteoarthritis. Following eight weeks of non weight bearing and a considerable amount of time in bed, she set out on a whim with members of her family to go swimming in Crummock Water. Quickly, immersion in cold water became an essential part of her daily routine - if chilly swims in Lake District tarns weren't possible, she took quick dips in a small tub installed in her garden instead. By describing these experiences through her writing, Sara's social circle quickly expanded, lifted her mood and provided her life with a focus.

During lockdown the idea of a book came to her and so she set out to write about the places she visited and more importantly, the people she met along the way. In all, Sara interviewed 16 people for "The Cold Fix" all with a strong desire to immerse themselves in cold water. From holes cut in frozen lakes to plastic dustbins filled with ice, Sara happily joined in and set out to find what made people "tick". Sara sums up her meetings with this thought,

"The cold is their friend, their lover, their teacher, and is often the only constant in their life. When the world is in flux, many have found peace and stability in the cold. It is a place where anxiety, grief, loss, confusion, pain and tiredness go to lie down with angels. And while you breathe, close your eyes, soften into the discomfort of the cold, these angels wash your being in silence and re-cloak you as you leave the water."

Crummock Water - where it all started!

During her talk I was very much reminded of George Mackerron and Susana Mouranto's 2013 study, "Happiness is Greater in Natural Environments". More than 20,000 people across the UK were recruited and given a smartphone app that sent them questions about how they were feeling. With more than a million responses, it was possible to show using the phone GPS that participants were happiest when they were out in nature, even after controlling for the day of the week or weather. Interestingly, according to the study's conclusions, areas near water, otherwise known as "blue spaces", were the happiest locations, "by some margin".

But of course it was clear from the audience's response that the benefits didn't stop at the waters edge. Many shared Sara's enthusiasm for direct contact with it. One woman spoke movingly about how mental health issues had sapped her confidence and left her unable to undertake a number of physical activities. However a short walk and immersion in cold water had "restored" her. She could swim, wade or simply dip her toes at the water's edge, knowing that she'd achieved something. It seemed to her that at such a point so many other things seemed possible.

In the final pages of her book Sara writes,

"I'm just so relieved and grateful to have been given the opportunity to experience the power of cold water. If I hadn't had that operation, if I hadn't lived in the Lake District with easy access to cold water, if my children hadn't been brave enough to come into the water with me while I was still on crutches, if I hadn't had the tenacity to push myself out of my comfort zone into ever colder water ... there are so many scenarios and rabbit holes into which I could have disappeared. But I hope I now know how to use the tools within me to become the person I want to be..."

Sara's book "The Cold Fix" is highly recommended and is available in paperback from Vertebrate Publishing.

The first of the "Barriers..." posts can be found here.

Barriers (Part 9) can be found here.

Thanks for reading this post. If this is your thing why don't you take a look at other posts on the blog? Better still, why not join the British Mountain Medicine Society? More information can be found here

For more information about the University of Central Lancashire's Diploma in Mountain Medicine (DiMM) take a look at this.