All guests partake in mulled wine, an evening meal of cheese fondue, a hot whirlpool bath in the snow and sometimes a nighttime snowshoe trip.

BBC: Five European winter boltholes

These outages were the result of a combination of whipping winds and power poles and lines sagging, and sometimes snapped, under the weight of especially heavy, wet snow and ice.

CNN: February 11, 2013 -- Updated 1005 GMT (1805 HKT)

I've been taking part for six years and sometimes we have had to go into the sea with snow on the ground.

BBC: North Sea dippers see in new year at Whitley Bay