Alice Goodridge, the founder of SwimWild, is at the heart of the UK’s ice swimming community. In 2018 she swam the Ice Mile, which is the new international cold-water benchmark: a mile in water of 5C or less, in just a swimming costume, hat and goggles. She is, in other words, extraordinary.

She leads her winter retreats with Becca Harvey, another Ice Miler, and both women have strings of open-water coaching and life-saving qualifications. I felt very safe swimming with them, with back-up from Alice’s husband Alastair, who drives the bus and brings all the equipment: hot drinks for post-swim warming up, floats, first aid, hot water bottles.

My favourite of the four Cairngorms lochs we visited over the course of three days was Loch An Eilein. It’s an idyllic place, with a ruined castle on an island in the centre of the lake. Our mainly middle-aged group swam out to the castle and back — my longest swim at seven or so minutes, and the coldest at 1.8C.  I have never felt better in my life!

From the moment I met Alice on the shores of blustery Lochindorb 3 years ago for my first wild swim, me doing breaststroke with head up; I have been inspired to progress my swimming! It has been a demanding journey to learn Freestyle in my 60’s!! Alice and the community of wild swimmers have supported me in Loch Morlich and in the pool, offering a very high standard of teaching and safety at all times.

The recent SwimWild trip on Cuma to the Outer Hebrides was brilliant in every way. As the least experienced swimmer I was accompanied by a SwimWild guide at all times and was encouraged to stretch my capability. We were so lucky to make it to St Kilda, but all the swim locations were special in their own ways. We were a very mixed group who all enjoyed the different swimming challenges on offer. We had the bonus of seeing a huge variety of wildlife with the thrill of swimming with seals and hundreds of puffins. The highlight for me was to swim 2km freestyle in open water – surpassing any expectation I ever had 3 years ago!” 

I attended SwimWild’s Introduction to Open Water Swimming Course at Loch Morlich as I was trying to decide if I was really going to give open water swimming a go, or if I liked the idea of it more than the reality. I needed to build a bit of confidence and experience. This course was just perfect for me. No stress. Nice and relaxed. Alice was just great about adapting to exactly what the group needed.

I have now done 3 sessions with SwimWild and I find Alice consistently lovely, considerate and exceptionally knowledgeable. Her enthusiasm for wild swimming is inspiring and really makes me think about my own reasons for swimming outdoors, as well as the setting to do that in. A great gentle introduction and the outcome is, I will be doing a bit more. How lovely to be bobbing around, neck high, in deep living loch water surrounded by beautiful Scottish mountains.”