Man frolics in potentially lethal cold

DULUTH, Minn., March 7 (UPI) -- They call him "The Ice Man," fitting for a Minnesota man who swims under Arctic ice, runs a North Pole marathon barefoot and climbs Mount Everest in shorts.

Wim Hof, a 48-year-old Dutchman from Minnesota, has a remarkable ability to withstand cold that could kill anyone else. It's an ability he says he discovered in himself as a young man 20 years ago.

"I had a stroll like this in the park with somebody and I saw the ice and I thought, what would happen if I go in there," he told ABC. "I was really attracted to it. I went in, got rid of my clothes. Thirty seconds I was in, Tremendous good feeling when I came out and since then, I repeated it every day."

It was the moment that Hof knew that his body was different somehow. He was able to withstand fatally freezing temperatures. No frostbite, no hypothermia.

At the hypothermia lab at the University of Minnesota in Duluth, scientists who've studied the cold for years say they've never seen anything like it