EAGAN, Minn. — Ed Kranz set up his mobile sauna next to a frozen beach at Lebanon Hills Regional Park in Eagan, Minnesota, on a frigid Sunday morning during a weekend cold snap.
Ed and his wife Colleen own Saunable, “a wood-fired sauna experience on wheels.” After sweating for about 8 to 12 minutes in Kranz’s 185-degree Fahrenheit (85 degrees Celsius) sauna, a group walked outside into a 15-degree Fahrenheit (9 degrees Celsius) Minnesota afternoon. They sat in bathing suits around a fire to gradually lower their body temperature before repeating the process three or four more times. One brave soul immersed himself in a hole in the frozen lake for a cold dip after the sauna.
The group was not alone. As temperatures dip into the teens, Minnesotans are embracing sauna culture for warmth and community. Enthusiasts say the state’s sauna mania is about more than just sweat and snow; it’s 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.
Sauna and cold plunge go together like peanut butter and jelly, says Glenn Auerbach, a self-described sauna evangelist and founder and editor of Sauna times. Auerbach started the website in 2008 to share his thoughts, research and conversations with an ever-growing cadre of movers and shakers in the sauna world. He and his conversation partners ponder topics such as 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 contrasts sharply with Minnesota’s frigid winter weather.
“Within our saunas, the stove must always win,” he said.
While these types of sauna truisms offer a degree of uniformity, there is also room for personal preference.
According to Auerbach, the smartest of them all in the sauna community can build a facility for about $10,000. Those who want to skip the physical labor can also outsource the construction. The popularity of saunas, which enthusiasts say has skyrocketed following the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to a rise in the number of manufacturers selling saunas for around $30,000 to $40,000.
While the sauna’s cultural cache may have increased in recent years, the practice long predates the Instagrammable spaces that have emerged in recent years, Auerbach said.
The smell of cedarwood has been in Justin Juntunen’s memory since he first entered his family’s sauna as a child. Juntunen, the founder of Scandinavian sauna made of cedar and stoneis 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 bring to local life.
People in Finland say there are more saunas than cars, Juntunen said. When immigrants like his grandfather came to Minnesota to work in the mines, mills or docks, they often saved to build a farm. But first they would build a sauna and live in the space while the main building was under construction. Later, saunas would serve as informal urban centers.
People gossiped in saunas, gave birth in saunas and died in saunas, Juntunen said. The public nature of the facilities reflects the egalitarian ethos that imbues Scandinavian culture, and by extension sauna culture, he added.
“This is a tradition that actually applies to everyone,” Juntunen said. “My favorite Scandinavian proverb is: all men are created equal, but nowhere more so than in the sauna.”
In addition to a desire for in-person experiences after the isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, sauna enthusiasts say interest began to rise after a influential research from 2016 from Dr. Jari Laukkanen, cardiologist and professor at the University of Eastern Finland.
Laukkanen found that sauna use was associated with a reduced risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in the male population included in the study. Beyond the academic literature, sauna adherents say they can feel the benefits for both body and mind.
“It just makes you feel good,” says Ed Kranz. “After a round of sauna you will sleep like a baby that night.”
Its physical and mental health benefits have also been highlighted by some of the internet’s most famous figures, such as podcasters Joe Rogan and Andrew Huberman.
“Every major podcaster in the world discovered that you can jump into cold water and it feels pretty good. And then people click on it online,” Juntunen said.
In this way, technology has been a paradox for sauna culture, he added. Digital media helped sauna culture grow, while saunas were seen as a reprieve from the ubiquitous influence of technology on every facet of daily life.
Nearly all proponents of sauna culture say its rise is inextricably linked to the desire for community.
Those committed to building their own saunas have hosted friends, neighbors and former teammates from their high school hockey team. This has created a new form of post-Covid contagiousness: “Good heat is contagious,” Auerbach said.
This core function of sauna culture spans generations. Juntunen’s grandfather often rushed to the sauna after work because stories were told there.
“It’s a space where storytelling happens, where connection happens or silence happens,” Juntunen said. “I think this is a very nice example of what a sauna really is.”