I have an eccentric 60-year-old cousin who once tried to explain to me his enjoyment of a Russian-style sauna in the Arctic. It involved downing shots of vodka before running outside and jumping naked into the sea where a couple of Russian soldiers had cut a circular hole in the ice.

?Everyone did it once,? he said with a little pride. ?But I did it twice.? ?Why?? I asked. ?Because I?m English.?

I was thinking of this the other day while visiting the Ice Factor, the world?s largest indoor ice-climbing centre. Converted from an aluminium-smelting factory, the centre has been open for just over a year. New this winter is a sauna so that one can enjoy a similar experience by wandering from a giant freezer into a hot room, although without the vodka.

I am here because the weather outside is awful and, having recently experienced decent ice-climbing in the Alps, I want to learn how the Ice Factor compares with the real thing. To my delight, it?s almost as good.

I sink my tools into the ice and kick my feet in. It feels good and I step up. It is very different from rock climbing, requiring far greater levels of concentration and commitment. It?s also much more aggressive ? you are equipped with sharpened steel axes and crampons for a start, weapons that wouldn?t be out of place in a battlefield scene from The Lord of the Rings.

They?re lethal. Ice-climbers often say the only rule of the sport is, ?do not fall?. I am reminded of this while levering out an axe. Sometimes it can be really hard, like trying to pull a nail from the wall; you struggle for ages and then pop, out it comes! I duly whack myself in the face and give myself a thick lip. Helmets are compulsory, protective eyewear recommended.

I make the next move up the vertical ice. I then reach a patch of dodgy ice that refuses to accept any axe-placements. I start thrashing around like a madman but the pick just bounces off. My heartbeat rises. I begin to sweat. I know that I?ve only got a matter of seconds before my left arm gives out. I?m inwardly screaming as the adrenaline starts pumping. Relax. Control. Place.

It?s in ? and I?m off again, reaching the top of the 45-ft wall with what I believe is deserved elation. Apart from the view, it?s as authentic as a frozen waterfall in the Alps.

Alan Halewood, Ice Factor?s manager, tells me that, at first, it was just hardened climbers coming in to train. ?But now we?re the largest tourist attraction in Lochaber,? he says. ?We?ve had 10,000 non-climbers through the door.? Halewood says climbing ice offers a very good anaerobic and aerobic work-out.

But he says it?s a mistake to think you?re just working on upper-body strength. ?Like most climbing, it?s an all-body work-out ? Scottish winter climbing is often described as an all-body punishment. On the ice a lot is down to balance and flexibility,? he says. And because of this, he adds, girls are often surprised by what they can achieve. ?Climbing is still predominantly a male, macho activity but you are finding more and more all-women ropes.?

Next February, the centre is hosting ?Chicks Unleashed?, a week of climbing instruction tailored to women, by female instructors.

The temperature of the chamber is about minus two degrees, yet within half an hour my partner and I are down to T-shirts and working up a sweat. We came up to Scotland to tackle a ridge on Lochnagar, but the weather put paid to that idea and the Ice Factor is a good fallback. It also offers a much better apr?s-climb experience than the usual one of hiking back, cold and hungry, in the dark ? the sauna.

?It?s very Scandinavian to plunge from a hot environment into freezing cold water,? says Halewood. ?We?re British and a bit more leisurely about it. It?s a way to warm up and wind down. It?s much more appealing.?

? The Daily Telegraph