People take a polar plunge in the St. Lawrence River in Montreal, on Dec. 31, 2025. The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes
On New Year’s Eve morning in Montreal, Mark Nikiforov sawed a hole into the thick sheet of ice capping the St. Lawrence River, preparing to plunge inside.
With temperatures hovering around -13 C—feeling colder than -20 with the wind chill—Nikiforov and about a dozen others stripped down to bathing suits, toques and gloves, and lowered themselves into the water.
