It was a sea of blue and red bums at the annual winter solstice swim.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
As the sun rose on the shortest day of the year, hundreds of brave souls gathered at the edge of Lake Burley Griffin to submerge themselves in the freezing waters.
More than 370 people turns out for this year's event, making it the biggest ever.
The sounds of a bagpipe helped swimmers summon their courage to jump into the blue-grey water.
One participant kept their beanie on even as they waded out into the lake.
The temperature of the lake drops to around six degrees in June, according to monitors.
![A swimmer at Canberra's winter solstice swim. Picture by Karleen Minney A swimmer at Canberra's winter solstice swim. Picture by Karleen Minney](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/232169416/08f8d0f9-0208-4ca6-9d0b-50f3d25dbc2b.jpg/r0_236_4822_3183_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The 2024 Ian Lindeman Memorial Winter Solstice Swim kicked off at 7.12 am on Friday, June 21 at Yarralumla Beach.
More than $47,000 was raised for Lifeline Canberra at the 2024 swim, organisers said.
The swimmers were in some ways fortunate; with the air temperature hovering about four degrees, it was a great deal warmer than the negative temperatures of earlier in the week.
There was also no wind to confront shivering bathers, with the Canberra Airport station reporting dead calm conditions at 7.30am.
However with a "feels like" temperature of just two degrees above freezing, there was still a lot of chattering teeth once the bathers emerged from the lake.
The rest of the day looked cloudy with patches of rain, and a maximum temperature of 11 degrees.
![Lots of cold bums at the winter solstice swim. Picture by Karleen Minney Lots of cold bums at the winter solstice swim. Picture by Karleen Minney](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/232169416/732867ab-b440-43b8-a409-a6659c957131.jpg/r0_43_800_534_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Heading into the weekend, the Bureau of Meteorology was predicting mostly sunny skies with passing cloud and maximums of 14 degrees.
The temperatures weren't set to plummet too low with a minimum of zero degrees forecast for Saturday and Sunday.