Friday, January 29, 2010

Ice Swimming!

Last week, I finally got to go ice swimming with Erika, Kate, and some ladies from the Fulbright center: Johanna who led us, Topi, and elegant Terhi.


It might sound crazy, but there's something really wonderful about ice swimming. First we walked shivering over a snowy path from the changing room to the steaming smoke sauna. This place was kind of funny, in addition to being really warm... Whenever someone came in - especially if it was a man - he would pour a ladle full of water over the hot rocks to create more steaming heat. I think that seeing who could withstand a hotter sauna was sort of a test of manliness. I couldn't really handle it at first and had to sit on the steps. (The temperature is hottest up on the platform.) Now, this is where the ice swimming comes in.

Before leaving the sauna, Johanna told me to breath calmly. "Just tell yourself that you're not going to die." It was very good advice.

So you step onto the stickily frozen wooden porch and first let yourself adjust to the cold a little bit. This is pretty important. The second time I went into the lake, I didn't wait as long to cool down beforehand, and the water felt much colder and stung my skin a little. So anyway, then you walk over a walkway to the lake, where you slowly let yourself down a slippery ice-covered ladder and into the water. Those who are brave enough will actually take a short swim around the little lake, but I only dipped myself in then slowly let myself out. After adjusting to the cold then dipping into the lake, the freezing air actually doesn't feel that bad at all. It's even rather pleasant. Then on the way back to the sauna, I could see everyone's bodies enveloped in a cloud of steam. After the lake, I could withstand much more heat in the sauna and managed to sit on the raised platform.


I told myself while outside that the sauna was hot, but now, it's time for the cold part, and the cold part is supposed to be cold. Somehow, ice swimming ends up being a truly amazing blend of the two extremes.

By the way, here's a quick fact. Aaron didn't believe this until he looked it up himself. While most saunas stay at around 40-50C, Finnish saunas range at about 80-110C (170-230F). The older men, who are experienced, might try for higher. And while there are about 5 million people living in Finland, the country has over 2 million saunas. Amazing in kind of a quirky way, huh?

Left to right: Johanna, me, Kate

2 comments:

  1. It's hard to believe that the Finns really like to sit in rooms the temperature of boiling water, but google confirms it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. wait, wont that boil blood?
    ....
    scary

    ReplyDelete