Where was the editor!?

This is a sweet little book telling, in alternate chapters, the story of Wim Hof's various extraordinary achievements and Justin Rosales's journey to study with him. Wim has workman-like prose. Justin, unfortunately, is a terrible writer. At first this is deeply annoying; Wim provides an interesting chapter about climbing Kilimanjaro or marathons in the arctic, then Justin follows up with over-detailed descriptions of his travel arrangements, his shopping habits, his school work:

After grabbing my wallet and room key, I walked out the door. I had a couple hours until sundown so I decided to buy groceries. I walked to the office to ask the receptionist if she knew of any places where I could buy food. My map told me where Walgreens was but I wanted to make sure that it was still up to date [...] It took me about ten minutes to walk to Walgreens. I bought a few microwave meals and a couple of fruits. I called Jarrett while I was shopping and updated him about what had happened thus far.

Even Jarrett doesn't care about your microwave meals, Justin!

Despite the dullness of his chapters, Justin's essential good nature shines through, and it's difficult not to grow fond of him. He remains utterly daft, though, so that fondness is tempered with exasperation. He is desperate to learn from the Iceman and watches youtube videos repeatedly - but doesn't think to google for Wim Hof's website or email address, and stumbles on them by chance months into his quest. He finally travels to the Netherlands to meet Wim Hof - but doesn't arrange a meeting place and doesn't take any currency with him! Lost and anxious at the airport, he has to exchange the American dollars his parents give him as 'emergency funds' so that he can use the pay phone. His early attempts to build up a tolerance to the cold are undisciplined, sporadic and occasionally dangerous (he nearly gives his girlfriend hypothermia).

As the book goes on, a parallel between the alternating chapters starts to appear. Wim Hof writes repeatedly about the importance of acceptance, self-belief and perseverance. Then he demonstrates it in his amazing endurance feats. However, Justin is also demonstrating those exact same qualities. Although his achievements are small in comparison, it is still a challenge for him to catch a plane for the first time, navigate a foreign country or begin the journey to ice-endurance (especially as drunken frat boys chase him when he runs!).
Justin's chapters are perhaps not just banal interludes between the interesting events - they are the proof of the veracity of the principles underlying Wim Hof's approach. If you skip the Justin chapters then, like an eager young student who is so impatient to become a master that he skips over the boring training exercises, you miss the first lesson and never progress.

On the whole though, there are few lessons here and it's rather disappointing. Two slim chapters at the end of the book describe Wim and Justin's suggestions for how to proceed in developing cold resistance. Justin's is sensible and straight-forward: basically expose yourself to the cold gradually - don't overdo it and damage yourself. Wim's suggestions are similar and include a breathing and visualisation exercise.

If you are wondering about the details of how Wim trains for his events, then there is sadly little to go on. He talks a great deal about trusting himself, his body and his instincts - but almost nothing about his practical exercises or diet. This gives the impression that all anyone needs to swim beneath the arctic ice is limitless self-confidence. But Wim is also an experienced yogi - perhaps his yoga practice helps his endurance? Maybe, but the details of his yoga regime (if he has one) are not discussed. He mentions with some amusement the surprise of people when they discover that he drinks and smokes - but he doesn't discuss other eating habits. Wim seems to be a man who operates entirely on instinct - he probably does have an excellent plan for developing endurance but never articulates it, instead trusting the correct next move to occur to him when necessary.

Really, this book should have been written by a ghost writer or third person (Jon Ronson!) following the two men around, teasing the facts out of them, and then writing it up in a more interesting and informative book - with a proper spell-check at the end of it! ( )