Meet your instructor.

My name is Hannah Downey. My life was turned upside down (or the right way up?) when I participated in my first Wim Hof Expedition. Pre expedition, I found Wim via a documentary on Netflix. I was intrigued and so some family, friends and I started swimming in sea nearby my home in Northern Ireland. How exhilarated the cold of the ocean made me feel fed my curiosity of Wim and his ways. I was the only one brave enough to go in swimsuit and that’s why I then had the assumption that the Winter Expedition in the snowy mountains of Poland would be a fabulous piece of cake. In Poland, the journey of self-discovery began, reality shifted and the view of the world was open. For 2 years since I have spent the large majority of my time immersed in the method and everything that it stands for. Purely for the love and joy of it. In 2022 post expedition I participated as many times as I could with Wim and Instructors as I had found the key, the alignment, the healing, the community I was unaware I had been so yearning for.

Not only did I take every chance to participate but I also began assisting at Wim Hof Method Events with instructor Leandre Omeir. I moved to the French Alpes, we travelled all across Europe hosting and I took the role of apprentice to better understand how to guide people through these practices that had aided my life so well.

Fast forward to March 2023 I am officially a certified WHM instructor. After an unforgettable amazing year of dedicating so much time, effort, energy to not only studying the Wim Hof Method but actually living it, practicing, participating, assisting every chance I got, it all led up to this.

Trailblazing my way through 2023 I got to share all my knowledge, lessons and experiences with my 100’s of participants across around 50 events in Ireland, North/South and France. It feels great. It’s my purpose and passion being lived in real time with beautiful people that gather to learn and grow.

In the midst of all this great madness I found the time to go to Africa and attempt to climb Kilimanjaro in under 24hrs. I made it to 4700M in 15hrs with no sleep, no acclimatization, fasted. Pure will and breathe. This would normally take 4 days for normal people. Good enough for me.

I ended this year by firstly participating with Wim and Laura Hof at the basecamp in the Netherlands for some well needed self-care after a chaotic year. Secondly, I was chosen to be an instructor at the winter expedition with Wim, talk about a full circle moment. Back to where it all started, a nostalgic, epic, ground-breaking week with 400 participants. When I returned home after the first expedition I participated in I got a lot of ‘get back to reality’, now this is my reality. Amazing.

I seem to have nomadic tendencies and so I am never in one place for tooooo long. Normally you can find me up a mountain in the France where I still work with Leandre at the Wim Hof Method Center in the French Alpes. The first in the world to be run by instructors by the way, no big deal. We only host weekends or expeditions here. Or you can find me in my place of origin, Northern Ireland where I host mostly workshops and weekend retreats.

So that’s me. A hardcore Hoffer living the dream.