There is no longer an organized, en masse polar bear swim in Alouette Lake on New Year’s Day, but the tradition is kept alive.
Small groups of hearty souls go to the main beach in Golden Ears Provincial Park each Jan. 1 around noon, to brave the icy water.
“I feel very invigorated and alive right now,” said Glenda Pohl as she emerged from the lake and wrapped a towel around herself.
It was her idea to have a polar bear swim on New Year’s Day, and she got together with fellow Maple Ridge residents Laura Edwards, and Bernie Serne and Ken Klock of Nelson.
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It isn’t a tradition for them, although Klock had done new year’s polar bear swim more than 30 years earlier, when he took part in Vancouver’s swim in English Bay.
Sunday offered a grey day with an occasional light drizzle, but the Boudreau and Gibson families were the next ones who charged into the water, with a pair of German exchange students along for the experience.
The kids looked shocked when they hit the water, and were out as fast as they ran in.
The men said the water wasn’t so bad, but judging from how red their skin turned, Alouette Lake provides the right temperature for the experience everyone was after on Jan. 1, 2023.
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