Breath & Ice Challenge
Breath & Ice Challenge
Event Returns to HoliMont Resort
Photos / Steve Beattie
Deep breathing takes on new heights later this month with the return of the Breath & Ice event at HoliMont Ski Area on Friday, February 28th. Join Steve Beattie, certified instructor in the Wim Hof Method, and colleagues as he guides practitioners through a series of breathwork followed by a hike (or chairlift ride) up the ski hill for a plunge into the icy ponds.
ellicottvilleNOW caught up with Steve via phone interview for more insight on the annual event.
“At this event at HoliMont, Breath & Ice, we come together, and we breathe - I teach people how to breathe, which is a strange thing,” he said. “It’s the original, primal pattern that we have - and we’ve forgotten how to do it. We’ve literally forgotten how to breathe.”
Beattie, a sponsored wilderness athlete and lifelong competitor, found himself suffering from an unknown illness in his early 40s. “I was actually in the ICU; they were getting ready to shock my heart back into rhythm. I went through all this testing, and they still couldn’t figure out what it was,” he said.
It was then that Beattie discovered the Wim Hof Method. “And it’s just breathing - you just breathe, and then you have a cold shower - and I started doing that and all of my symptoms were remediated,” he said. “This disease that I had that was killing me, went away.”
The Wim Hof Method is named for its namesake and founder, Wim Hof of the Netherlands, who holds world records for distance swimming in icy waters and for running a marathon barefooted in the snow.
Breathwork is more common now due to Wim Hof’s influence, Beattie shared. “Breathwork is accepted everywhere, and everybody is doing breathwork. There are different schools of breathwork; it’s common knowledge that doing breathwork is a gateway into altered states of being, reducing stress, reducing inflammation, healing ourselves - it’s everywhere now, and we have Wim Hof to thank for that,” he stated.
Through his own healing journey, Beattie found that teaching breathwork allowed for deeper levels of healing on both emotional and spiritual levels. “It really opened my eyes to something even greater, so that’s really what I do now. I teach breathwork and going cold, and really learning how to find that strength that we have inside of us that we’ve lost.”
Now in its second year, the Breath & Ice event was co-founded by Beattie and John Baldwin of The Good Climb Endurance Challenge, which happens annually at HoliMont (this year’s event will take place on Sunday, July 27th) and raises money in support of mental health programs throughout New York State. Baldwin had attended one of Beattie’s breathwork sessions in Buffalo and approached Beattie about doing an event locally at HoliMont.
At the Breath & Ice event, Beattie guides practitioners through a series of breathwork using different modalities. Guides are there with him to assist as some people can have emotional responses to the breathwork, according to Beattie. After breathing together in community, the group then hikes up the hill to the top of the mountain for a dip in the icy pond waters.
“So, we climb up the hill, and everybody uses their breath to get energy as they climb the hill, and they focus. When you bring your awareness to your breath, you get stronger,” he stated. “Then we do the real challenge - going into the icy waters, and that’s where you quite literally lose your breath; you gasp, but what you notice is that it brings the awareness to your breath - you breathe through it - and when you breathe through, you return to this incredible calm state of being.” He continued that when placed in this state of emergency, nothing else matters. “Everything that feels important just falls away and you find your true self, and it changes peoples’ lives. It really does,” he said.
The experience is further enhanced through community, according to Beattie. “When you do all of this with a group of people, something else happens. When we do an event like breathing together, our hearts go into what is called coherence - they start to beat together; we all have the same heart rate. When we’re doing the breathwork, we’re having one common experience, and we’re breathing together, our hearts are beating together, we come together. We co-regulate, and that becomes a really powerful part of our healing,” he shared.
“So, we learn how to get connected to our breath first, and through that breath, we access our mind - our real, true mind, what we’re thinking - and then we allow our mind to quiet itself. And when our mind becomes quiet, we connect to our body, and then we quite literally ask our body to become strong and healthy, and it does.”
The Breath & Ice event will be held on Friday, February 28th from 12:00-4:00pm at HoliMont Ski Area in The Phoenix Room. Tickets are $125 and 10% of all proceeds go to The Good Climb Endurance Challenge. Anyone of sound body over 18 years of age can attend. Breathwork and cold exposure are not recommended for those with epilepsy, active heart failure, or those who are pregnant, Beattie advised. For additional event details or to sign up, visit www.breathinginnature.com/hollimontbreathice.