Powerlifter Elias Meyer endures extreme cold in swimwear to claim icy endurance feat
A Swiss man has set a chilling new Guinness World Record by spending more than two hours fully buried in snow, wearing nothing but his swimming trunks.
Elias Meyer, a competitive powerlifter, took on the record for the longest time in direct full-body contact with snow, surpassing the previous mark set by Poland’s Valerjan Romanovski in 2022. Romanovski had held the record at 1 hour, 45 minutes, and 2 seconds.
Meyer remained submerged beneath a heavy mound of snow for 2 hours and 7 seconds, emerging from the icy tomb to claim the title.
“You can only be thankful”
Despite the extreme conditions, Meyer said the cold wasn’t the hardest part.
“The heavy snow pressed me down, causing my shoulders and elbows to ache. Perhaps you also feel a sharp ice cube against your back, with no chance to do anything about it, you can only be thankful, thankful for everything,” he wrote on Instagram after the attempt.
Pushing the limits of the human body
Meyer said his motivation was rooted in the challenge of surpassing a mark that had not yet crossed the two-hour threshold.
In reflecting on the experience, he said his aim was to prove that “the body is capable of incredible things.”
The feat adds Meyer’s name to an elite group of endurance athletes, and his record has now been officially recognized by Guinness World Records.
