Immune to the cold: How Saskatoon’s Cole Nordby endures icy winters

When extreme cold warnings fall over the province, most people avoid going outside altogether.

And if they absolutely have to, most people get bundled up from head to toe in multiple layers to avoid the dangers of the cold.

Cole Nordby is not most people.

When temperatures hit those bone-chilling levels you might catch a glimpse of Nordby walking down certain Saskatoon streets in just shorts and a T-shirt. That is, of course, if you can even see through the frost on your car’s windows.

Nordby walks approximately 30 minutes to and from work every day with minimal clothing. And he does it for fun.

“I saw videos and stuff of people working out in the cold or walking in the cold. And I thought yeah, I could do that and I started doing it when it was like two degrees out in the morning. Then slowly it got colder and slowly I just got used to it,” said Nordby.

“I wanted to do it last year and I just never got around to doing it so in the summer I started taking cold showers and just trying to see if I could do that and I felt really good. And I really wanted to walk to work because I enjoy walking and I wanted to do the cold walk so one day I just picked a day and was like, ‘I’m going to walk.’ ”

The videos he is referring to are made by Wim Hof, a man who is famous for his self-named cold exposure method.

According to the official website, The Wim Hof Method is based on three pillars: Cold therapy, breathing and commitment. It states that “the cold is your warm friend” and explains how “proper exposure to the cold starts a cascade of health benefits.”

Nordby has felt some of these benefits first hand since starting his cold exposure training in the summer.

“I sleep a lot better. Because you have to be in a certain mindset to walk in the cold, you have to learn to block stuff out and focus on what you are doing at the moment so I apply that to sleeping. If I find my mind is racing from the day or something, I just take a couple of deep breaths and focus on that and I just fall asleep really, really easy,” he said.

“I feel less annoyed with people and stuff like that. My attitude has got better and I just feel more energy physically and more energy mentally and I just feel really good walking in the cold (or) taking cold showers.”

But despite the benefits, there are still risks to being outside in the cold unprotected. The University of Manitoba’s Dr. Gordon Geisbrecht studies the human physiological responses to environmental stress, primarily focusing on the cold. He says the body has all sorts of defences to maintain its core temperature at about 37 C.

“Basically it’s like a thermo-regulatory centre. It acts like a thermostat in the room: If it gets too cold, the furnace kicks on,” Geisbrecht said about the body shivering and reducing blood flow to extremities to keep the core warm.

“If the cold stress is too much, then eventually your core temperature will start to cool if the defence measures don’t work. So that relates to hypothermia. Frostbite is basically the freezing of the skin … and so if you look at the typical windchill, at 40 below, exposed skin can be frozen and can become frostbitten in five minutes.”

Geisbrecht qualified that statement by saying that different people lose heat at different rates and that fingers and toes are much more likely to become frostbitten quicker than exposed arms or legs. But the one thing he urges you to remember if you are planning to go out in the cold is to “never accept numbness” because that is the first warning sign of frostbite.

Nordby is aware of the risks associated with what he is doing and even has all winter gear available if he feels it is too cold out. He also routinely checks himself for signs of frostbite but hasn’t experienced anything worse than minor frostnip.

“I think people see me do it and they think it’s crazy but they don’t see the work ahead of time and the planning ahead of time and just the precautions I take,” he said.

“If I go outside and I think it will be dangerous to walk, I’ll go back in and put something on. It just hasn’t happened lately. So if it gets really, really cold, you might see me in sweats or something but most days I wear shorts and a T-shirt. Once you get out there for a few minutes, your body starts to heat up and you feel nicer.”

If you are still skeptical about Nordby’s cold exposure experiment, a quick Google search might change your mind. From magazines like The Atlantic to actual medical journals, there are countless sources that show there is validity to the health benefits and complicated physiological processes that Nordby is experiencing.

But Geisbrecht, who was not shy about diving into the technical and scientific side of the body’s reaction to cold, sums it up best with a simple phenomenon most in Canada should be well aware of.

“I think we all would agree that if it was five degrees in early November, we’re freezing. (We’ve) got to go put a parka on. But in March, if it is five degrees you think it is summertime. So that’s a function of two things. We tolerate it better from a psychological perspective but also acclimatization is essentially a decreased response to continual exposure to the same stimulus,” he said.

“So that’s the other thing. If you are going to decide to exercise outside, the time to do that is not the middle of January. The time to do that is the middle of summer and just keep doing the same exposure every day and then you are gradually going to acclimatize as the temperature gradually gets colder and when it gets to mid-January you are acclimatized and you are not at as much risk for frostbite.”

Geisbrecht also brings up cryotherapy and Finnish people’s tendency to jump in frozen lakes halfway through the day as an example of how exposure to cold can invigorate you in more ways than one. But for Nordby, his interest in walking in the cold doesn’t come from examples or science; it just comes down to how it makes him feel.

“Maybe next year, I’ll continue doing it, maybe I won’t,” he said. “But I’m having fun doing it so I’ll continue doing it as long as I am enjoying it.”