It's Mind over Body for the 'Iceman'

You can't hassle the Hof, not while he's in the zone.

Wim Hof, a Dutchman, got his nickname of "Iceman" from his extraordinary ability to survive freezing water and temperatures. He says it's all down to meditation.

Hof gained fame a few years ago from a stunt in which he was shut in a box of freezing water on a New York street for 71 minutes. During that time, he neither called for help nor even shiver. Doctors who were monitoring his every move (and he made few) tracked his body temperature dropping from the normal 98.6 to 93.6, alongside a gradual increase in heart rate. Hof says he did it all through meditation. Doctors who monitored him would add that he has the ability to control his body's production of cortisol, the natural defense mechanism that comes into play when the body is "attacked."

He has already proven himself worthy of the nickname, not only with the New York stunt but also with a marathon run barefoot through the snow in Finland in subzero conditions. A swim underneath the Arctic ice the length of a football field, another of his feats, seems paltry by comparison.

How does he do it? Tests have proved that he can indeed provide mental control over his bodily functions, so much so that doctors tracked his ability to increase warmth in one part of his body during a stint being locked inside a tank of ice in Hong Kong for two hours. His lower back got too cold and started to ache, so Hof willed that part of his body to warm up. Problem solved.

He has had a go at Mount Everest, of course, coming within a couple thousand feet of the summit despite wearing only sandals and shorts. He did manage to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, though, boasting the same paltry clothing and footwear.

It's all in his head, doctors say, and in his determination.

He'll definitely need a lot of both in his next attempt, which is to run a marathon through the desert without drinking water.