36-year-old Norwegian Lars Jørun Langøien is the kind of badass who bathes in ludicrously cold open water. He's also a total hero.

It all started with a duck. This duck, to be specific; who was just chilling on a frozen lake, minding its own business. Admiring its own reflection. Possibly wondering what happened to the liquid stuff it could swim in.

Suddenly, the ice cracked, something weird happened and the duck was trapped. Trapped and in GRAVE DANGER!

Luckily, Lars - and a friend who had conveniently been photographing the duck at the time - was on hand, and majestically leapt into the water (breaking the last of the ice in the process).

It was a perilous ordeal, but both man and duck made it out alive... even if the duck was briefly unconscious.

(Not to mention COLD)

Nice one, Lars. Let us hope that someone is on hand with a camera every time a duck finds itself in this predicament.