Czech adventurer challenges limit at minus 100 degrees

Covered in sleeping bags, Czech globetrotter and adventurer Marek Simicek successfully stayed for a record eight hours in minus 100 degrees Celsius in a cryo chamber.

Simicek, 39, decided to test his physical and mental endurance, hardened by several hiking trips around the Baikal area.

He entered the special chamber at 2 p.m. Monday afternoon and left it at 10 p.m. in good health condition, Xinhua news agency reported.

Wearing a T-shirt, a pullover sweater, an anorak and a fur cap, he entered the chamber with two special sleeping bags. Before Monday's try, he increased the number of the insulating layers to protect his body from the frost.

A doctor examined Simicek thoroughly before the experiment, and experts fixed sensors on his body to monitor his life functions such as the pulse, temperature and breath. The challenge would have been stopped if Simicek's body temperature had dropped by three degrees. Simicek could communicate with people via a mobile phone and a walkie-talkie.

Anaesthesiologist Lubomir Smuk, who monitored the unusual experiment, said Simicek was well prepared for it. He said Simicek had several times slept in extreme conditions in Siberia with temperatures at 60-80 degrees below zero.