Back in Iceland I used to enjoy swimming in the icy ocean once a week and thought that swimming in lake Zürich over the winter could have the same effect.
Does anyone know about any groups that I could potentially join?
Also, it would be good if there were a hot-tub or sauna to warm up after a swim such as the sauna at Seebad Enge, are there any alternatives you know of?
- Great party's
- Nice sauna
- Rowing is great but not demanded
Feel free to ask more questions or contact them directly.
Sauna Enge offers a reduced entrance fee if you only want to swim: it's CHF5 and gets you use of the warm changing rooms and the showers. They have restricted the offering this year (I think it has been becoming more and more popular) and the swimming ticket is now only available on Tuesdays to Thursdays and Saturdays (if I remember correctly- this might be wrong) and only in daylight hours- so lunchtimes will work, but not evenings.
There's a sauna and hot tub at Utoquai but this is available to yearly members only and is not cheap (I don't recall the exact price).
There is a Facebook group (as linked above) but there has not been much activity at all there this year. Last year it was quite popular so if you post again you might get some responses.
I operate a mailing list which has several people on it who go swimming through the winter. This has not been active this year for some reason (I've not done it this season) but if you PM me your email address I can sign you up, and you can see if anyone from the list wants to join.
There's nothing better than a nice swim on a sunny but cold day! The lake goes down to around 3-4 degrees in the depths of winter- not sure how this compares to Iceland. Lake temperatures are here: https://www.tecson-data.ch/zurich/mythenquai/index.php and river temperatures are here: https://awel.zh.ch/internet/baudirek...aktuelle-daten . Note that the thermometer outside Sauna Enge is not at all accurate- it always shows the temperature as being much lower than it actually is.
If you don't mind the lack of changing rooms and a shower, there are usually a few people swimming at Mythenquai during the day, especially around lunch time. If it's windy, the cold can really bite when you're getting changed after, so be prepared!
Will move to Zurich in July and was indeed looking forward to swimming and paddle-surfing during winter.
I’m from the south of Italy but developed a love for chilly waters in our year spent in Copenhagen (dipping butt-naked in 2 Degrees Baltic waters in sunny days was great).
Do we have a critical mass for a proper hybernist SUP/swimming group?
Lake is really taking its time to warm up this year (7.6 degrees at the moment according to https://www.tecson-data.ch/zurich/mythenquai/index.php ): I'll be in as soon as it's over 10 (feeling a bit of a wimp this year).
Utoquai opens on 10th May, 7am to 8pm in every weather except lightning. Historically, water temperature that time of year is about 10 to 14 degrees.
Sauna Enge is open for winter swimming now: they have the rules, days and times and prices listed on their website, https://www.seebadenge.ch/wp/sauna/
Summer is about to end and I would love to try to keep swimming all winter or at least as long as possible. I would love to join a small group and was thus wondering if you guys are still up for Winter swimming and if we might want to meet sometime soon for a first swimming Session while its still warm would love to hear Back from anyone interessted in Winter swimming, preferably around utoquai-tiefenbrunnen-china-wiese.
The lake is still 21 degrees by the way, which is about average for this time of year, and still easily swimmable by all.
Most of the Zurich pools close on 10th Sep, which is this weekend.
Letzigraben and Seebach open air pools (possibly some others too) stay open until 16 Sep.
Utoquai stays open until 23 Sep officially. Usually they extend the season by 1 or 2 weeks which means that most likely you can swim there into October.