Perfect Site for a Polar Bear Club to Swim

On the first day of each new year, hardy souls gather around cold water hotspots and jump in to prove...well, I'm not really sure what they are trying to prove, but it is relatively safe to say that the majority of people thinks that such people are more than a little addled to complete such a stunt. While I have never done so myself, it's not out of the realm of possibility. After all, I have run from a sauna to plunge into a snowbank because one of our foreign exchange students from Sweden said it was commonplace there, and I didn't want him to think Americans were sissies. Having done it, I can cheerfully say that I will never do so again...unless provoked by an interesting challenge such as the one pictured above.

Yes, it seems like another ordinary hole in a frozen lake, but this one's about to become famous. It is located in the Ural Mountains of Russia and is named Chebarkul Lake. I hear you asking why I might travel all the way to Russia to do something I could do right here in Green Bay. The answer is simple: you are looking at the hole created by last week's falling meteorite. By now, we've all seen the footage of the ball of fire streaking across the early morning Soviet skies, emitting sound waves strong enough to shatter more than 200,000 square meters of glass from buildings underneath its path while traveling at an estimated 19 miles per second. Wow!

The hole it left in the lake where it finally deposited itself was about 20 feet wide...certainly large enough to handle a newly-formed Polar Bear club. Who wouldn't want to be able to say that he or she had leaped into this lake just after the meteorite landed?

For the record, divers DID go into the water to find the remains but could find nothing.

If it starts to glow, there will be a new "place to visit" in Fodor's next travel guide.

Or, it could be an ice-fishing hot spot.