{"id":690572,"date":"2026-01-12T07:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T07:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/690572\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T07:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T07:25:18","slug":"cold-water-swimmers-break-ice-of-frozen-reservoir-to-go-for-dip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/690572\/","title":{"rendered":"Cold water swimmers break ice of frozen reservoir to go for dip"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The swimmers were seen breaking the ice with a hammer before taking a bracing dip<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35 __className_75e17d\">SWNSGeorgeJones (George Jones)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>14:37, 11 Jan 2026<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_SWNS_ICE_SWIM_01_121631.jpg\" alt=\"Swimmers take to the frozen water\" loading=\"eager\"  \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"The swimmers broke the ice with a hammer before taking the plunge\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">The swimmers broke the ice with a hammer before taking the plunge(Image: )<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Brave cold water swimmers broke the ice of a frozen reservoir with a hammer before going for a bracing dip. Photographer Craig Hannah, 57, spotted the hardy pair while taking photos on the Pennines between Marsden and <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/all-about\/saddleworth-and-lees\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Saddleworth<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">At Redbrook Reservoir, which had been completely frozen over, he discovered two wild swimmers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The pair, believed to be locals, were seen using a hammer to hack away at the thick ice before taking the plunge.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_SWNS_ICE_SWIM_04_121634.jpg\" alt=\"Swimmers take to the frozen water\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The freeze came after <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/news\/greater-manchester-news\/gallery\/greater-manchester-snow-pictures-storm-33196215\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" rel=\"follow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\">Storm Goretti<\/a> brought heavy snow and sub-zero temperatures to the UK last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Craig, who is a part-time photographer, from Saddleworth, said: &#8220;It is a tradition for people to swim in these moors. But I was surprised I saw anyone with how cold it has been.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_SWNS_ICE_SWIM_03_121633.jpg\" alt=\"Swimmers take to the frozen water\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">&#8220;It was around -2\u00b0C when I was there and it was freezing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He added: &#8220;I was stood admired for about 15 minutes watching them break the ice. When they finally entered, the pair seemed so peaceful.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The swimmers were seen breaking the ice with a hammer before taking a bracing dip SWNSGeorgeJones (George Jones)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,2768,1286,49364,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-690572","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-manchester-weather","13":"tag-oldham","14":"tag-saddleworth-and-lees","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115880940770596611","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}