Plunge

"With air temperature hovering in the single digits, (from left to right) Nyles Alder, Jake Fillmore, Vaun Christensen, and Devin Cammack emerge from the icy water during the first annual polar bear plunge at Deer Creek reservoir, Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009. Their goal was to raise more than $5,000."

Now back to the regularly (now old) posting...

I mentioned it the other day, but it gets cold here, but even more frigid up the canyon.

The other day I drove up Provo canyon to shoot a polar bear plunge. The concept is simple if you never heard of it: jump into freezing cold water for donations.

They had something similar back in Baltimore, but now that I think about it, it was anything but a real polar bear plunge.

Here is how I determined that:

The temperature: Utah wins. It was a blistering 8 degrees. I'm sure their hands and toes were frozen solid. Back in Baltimore is was always close or above freezing.

The water: Utah wins. Water was probably much colder. I saw ice chunks floating.

The ground: Utah wins. Walking barefoot in snow beats barefoot in sand.

People: Maryland wins, by far. But that's because this version in Utah was it's first time ever. They had more than 50 signed up, but only four plunged.

Aftermath: Utah wins. Instead of running into large heated tents with warming blankets, these guys ran through the snow to their cars.

So obviously it was way more extreme here, but I guess when it comes down to it, it's always a fun shoot despite the amount of people and temperature and always for a good cause.