Courtesy of Ger Kennedy, Mikkelvik Brygge (located at 70° 3′ 12.312” N 19° 1′ 55.2396” E) on the Norway Ice Swimming Expedition in northern Norway.

Ger Kennedy is leading Norway Ice Swimming Expedition in northern Norway in Mikkelvik Brygge.

“Today, in a joint venture with Kate Steels-Fryatt, we planted an Irish flag at Mikkelvik, Norwegen after swimming long distance in ice water of 2.8°C, we planted a Irish flag to claim this island now named oileán na hÉireann with our crew Searon McGrattan, Pakie Bolster, Alice Kelliher, Rory Fitzgerald, and Jamie Monahan.”

Irish ice swimmer Kennedy explains how he located this venue. “I found it about a year ago. A safe swimming location was the objective and I was trying to find a location at 70°N without incurring a huge cost.

This was originally a small fishing tourist location with new houses built and completed in July 2016.

I found a private boat used for killer whale watching and sightseeing.

We are able to do night ice swimming under the Northern Lights. The venue is about 50m from a house and a sauna and local medical EMT is available. It is a hike to the local ice lake for ice diving and it is a future location to bring other swimming groups now that initial contact has been established.

The team is preparing for a Polar Ice Swim, defined due to its GPS location. The Polar Ice Mile as part of the Ice Sevens.

A future plan is for this to be part of the Antarctica 2020 swim. This would enable us to swim a mile in both Polar Circles,” explained Kennedy, shown swimming with Kate Steels-Fryatt above.

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