EXCELSIOR, Minn. — Jumping into a hole in a frozen lake on a winter night in Minnesota is brutal. As your body spasms and your teeth chatter uncontrollably, you wonder: What was I thinking?
On the shore of Lake Minnewashta in Excelsior, near Minneapolis, the answer lies in a dimly lit, wood-heated barrel-shaped sauna three feet away. Inside, a group of strangers shared laughter, words of encouragement and sighs of joy as they passed between the frigid water and the shelter that emanated steam and whose temperature reached 88 degrees Celsius.
A tradition imported by Norse settlers to Minnesota in the late 19th century has become widespread. Since 2000, and particularly after the pandemic, sauna businesses have proliferated in Minnesota and the upper Midwest, catering to the growing ranks of lovers of the ritual of the freeze-and-sweat cycle.
Watershed Spa, a luxury spa in Minneapolis, often has a months-long waiting list for reservations. There are floating saunas, sauna-themed gyms, guided meditative sauna sessions in luxury hotels, and even portable saunas in tents that can be transported by canoe.
Sauna Camp, which features 10 saunas next to Lake Minnewashta, opened this winter. One of its co-founders, Luis Leonardo, is a Guatemalan immigrant who moved to Minnesota in 2013 and was shaken by its first two bone-chilling winters.
“Now this is my favorite season of the year!” exclaimed Leonardo, 44 years old. “There is no money that will make me leave Minnesota for the winter.”
Many sauna fans said they were initially drawn to reports of the physical and mental health benefits of regularly subjecting the body to extreme heat and cold. Now they say they deeply value the intimate bonds that crowded, sweaty spaces foster.
Darin Mays had never given saunas much thought until he moved across the street from Glenn Auerbach, founder of SaunaTimes, which covers the industry, who invited him. The conversations the two had, dripping with sweat, felt uniquely profound, Mays, 40, said.
The many hours he spent in saunas were cathartic and enlightening, Mays said, prompting him to stop taking a psychiatric medication for anxiety. In late 2020, he left a corporate job at a healthcare company and began building lightweight, translucent saunas.
“As we've become more technology-based, we've really lost that special aspect of having that human connection with people,” Mays said. “Once people experience it, it fills them in a way they didn't imagine it could fill them.”
#icy #dips #warm #sauna #winter #night #Minnesota