EAGAN, Minn. (AP) — Ed Kranz set up his mobile sauna next to a frozen beach at Lebanon Hills Regional Park in Eagan, Minnesota, on a bone-chilling Sunday morning during a weekend cold snap.
Ed and his wife Colleen own Saunable, “a wood-fired sauna experience on wheels.” After about 8 to 12 minutes of sweating in the Kranz’s 185 degrees Fahrenheit (85 degrees Celsius) sauna, a group moseyed outside into a 15-degrees Fahrenheit (9 degrees Celsius) Minnesota afternoon. They sat around a fire in bathing suits to gradually lower their body temperatures before repeating the process three or four more times. One brave soul submerged himself into a hole in the frozen lake for a post-sauna cold plunge.
The group was not alone. As temperatures drop into the teens, Minnesotans are embracing sauna culture for warmth and community. Devotees say the state’s sauna mania is about more than sweat and snow — it is the product of Old World traditions intersecting with newfangled internet-based communities, and a desire for social connection in a society that can feel isolating.
HOW IT WORKS
Sauna and cold plunges go together like peanut butter and jelly, said Glenn Auerbach, a self-described sauna evangelist and the founder and editor of SaunaTimes. Auerbach started the website in 2008 to share his thoughts, research and conversations with an ever-expanding cadre of movers and shakers in the sauna world. He and his interlocutors mull over topics like the nitty-gritty of sauna construction, how to cultivate “good sauna vibes” and the health benefits of the sauna lifestyle.
A typical temperature to achieve the holy trinity of the sauna experience — heat, steam and ventilation — is about 180 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit (82-93 degrees Celsius), a temperature that starkly contrasts with Minnesota’s frigid winter weather.
“Within our saunas, the stove should always win,” he said.
While sauna truisms such as this provide some degree of uniformity, there is also leeway for personal preference.
The craftiest of the lot in the sauna community can build a facility for about $10,000, according to Auerbach. Those looking to skip the physical labor can also outsource the construction. Sauna’s popularity, which enthusiasts say spiked following the COVID-19 pandemic, has brought with it a rise in manufacturers selling saunas for about $30,000 to $40,000.
While sauna’s cultural cache may have increased in recent years, the practice long predates the Instagrammable spaces popping up in recent years, Auerbach said.
NORDIC ROOTS
The smell of cedar wood has been lodged in Justin Juntunen’s memory ever since he first stepped into his family’s sauna as a child. Juntunen, the founder of Cedar and Stone Nordic Sauna, is a descendant of Finnish immigrants who came to America in the 1880s. They and their compatriots brought with them an appreciation for saunas and the communal values these steam-filled rooms impart to local life.
