They might be inviting hypothermia in their, ahem, extremities, but these brave or foolish souls have embraced a new craze that has swept
Wiltshire over the weekend.
Stripping down to their undies – and beyond – hundreds of people have taken part in an impromptu challenge to be photographed naked in the snow.
It began on Friday night with a cheeky attempt by a downtrodden care worker, Leanne Myers, to amuse her friends and neighbours by posing for pictures in her undies in the snow with next door neighbour Danielle Smith.
Leanne created a page on the social network site Facebook called "Wiltshire, let's get naked in the snow!" and posted her picture of the pair of them, inviting her friends to do the same. Within 24 hours the page had gone 'viral', and by yesterday afternoon thousands had joined to look, with hundreds experimenting with ever-more inventive ways of posing naked with their unmentionables obscured by snowmen, snow, bottles, scarves, tree branches, road signs and even a frying pan.
The pictures have been done in the style of the famous naked WI calendar, but with the added frisson of freezing conditions and the possibility of being seen by the neighbours.
Now Leanne said she wants to turn what started as 'nothing more than a bit of a giggle', into a fundraiser for a local charity, and Wiltshire's naked snow pictures are quickly going global.
"I'm a care worker and on Friday while everyone had a snow day, me and my colleagues couldn't. We simply have to get to our patients at their homes, there's no alternative," said Leanne, from Durrington in Wiltshire.
"I had a horrendous day on Friday trying to get around and at the end of the day, eventually, I came home and thought 'right, I need to cheer me and my colleagues up', so I got Danielle from next door and we did a silly picture of us with some guitars and I started the page.
"I really did just think it would be a bit of fun, to provide a bit of a giggle for maybe 50 of my friends and neighbours in the village, but on Saturday it really took off. My husband and I went out on Saturday to the club in the village and a lad said 'Hi Leanne, I didn't recognise you with your clothes on'. That's when I knew it had gone a bit further than that," she added.
By Sunday, more than a 1,000 people had joined the page, with dozens of photographs – by yesterday the site had more than 5,000 with hundreds of photographs.
"It is totally amazing, I really had no idea it would take off like this. People have really embraced it, and a lot of the pictures are of friends of friends, but now there's some coming in from people I don't know. I've had interest from Abu Dhabi and America and people messaging me saying 'we're not in Wiltshire, can we send in a pic?' They are welcome from anywhere, as long as they are kept tasteful.
"It would be great to use this for some good, especially as it's a bit of fun," she added. Leanne is in contact with a couple of local charities and hopes to post the appeal on the page this week.
You can find the Facebook page here
