The looks on their faces were priceless. When I told our visiting relatives what the plan was for the evening, they first thought I was joking. Then, when they realized that I wasn’t, their jaws nearly hit the ground. “You want us to do what?” The answer was that I expected them to enter a very hot room that smelled intensely of smoke, sit there in equally intense heat in the company of others while completely naked, and afterwards cover their bodies with mud. “It will be very fun…” I insisted, “…and it’s very good for your skin.” Fortunately, they are a very adventurous group and agreed to come along, albeit sceptically.

Our destination for the day was the Uimolan Savusauna, a smoke sauna on the scenic shores of Heräjärvi (Lake Herä) in Rautjärvi (an easy 30 minute drive from Imatra). We were welcomed by its friendly proprietor, Kari Pulkkinen, and showed around the area which included an all-season cabin, traditional sauna, outdoor kitchen, safe beach and the smoke sauna that holds 10-15 people quite comfortably. The whole area could easily accommodate much larger groups as well.

Kari explained the process we were all about to go through and told us a bit about the history of his absolutely wonderful establishment. We were to go for a quick, warming sauna and then for a dip in the clean, quite warm water of Lake Herä. Then, after another warming sauna visit, we were to cover our bodies with a very dark mud made from the peat taken from a swamp in Lohja, located in south-east Finland. Apparently, this is THE place to get one’s peat. It has some sort of magical properties that result in healthy skin and a quickening of the pulse. Kari also joked that the peat treatment may also cause husbands and wives to chase each other around the house for a while afterwards. I can personally attest that all of these things were true for at least two of us.

For those of you who haven’t been in one, the smoke sauna is a very special experience. Although I am an avid sauna bather, I have been to a smoke sauna on just three occasions in the last decade. There just aren’t that many of them anymore. Those that do exist are usually associated with some kind of sauna club, like the Saimaa Sauna Society, of which Kari is a longstanding member. In fact, the Uimola Smoke Sauna has been voted one of the best in the world by both Finnish and international sauna enthusiasts. It is also the home to the World Championships of Sauna Bathing (called the Saimaa Löyly Cup), a competition that determines who can take the most heat in a nation devoted to sauna bathing. I wouldn’t last 30 seconds with these hard core bathers – and they go for up to 8 minutes at a time in temperatures of over 110 C. Of course, it’s not the temperature that really gets you, it’s the frequency at which water is thrown on the hot rocks and sauna steam (löyly) is produced.

A smoke sauna is different from a regular sauna in that it has no chimney. The stove is also much larger, as is the number of rocks used to maintain the heat. In this case, Kari uses about 700 kg of rocks. In my own sauna at home, about 30 kg of rock is used. Moreover, the process of preparing the sauna is also quite different. Smoke saunas are heated for 6-8 hours before bathing and the smoke is allowed to fill the entire room. Since Kari’s sauna is used almost daily, some residual heat means that his can be heated in as little as 3-4 hours. When the rocks are sufficiently heated, the fire is allowed to die out and smoke is released through vents. However, the oddly engaging smell of the smoke remains – an intense scent of tar, though not at all unpleasant.

Well, let me just say that the effort that goes into preparing a smoke sauna is worth it. We had the most wonderful evening possible. There were good times, good food and extremely good company (11 of us in total for more than 4 hours). How many times in life can you say that you had fun with hot, naked people covered in mud? I believe my visiting relatives were as pleasantly surprised as the rest of us. The looks on their faces were priceless yet again. The accompanying pictures should show that clearly. Being from Canada, and this being their first time in Finland, my relatives weren’t extremely keen to strip off their clothes and join in the celebration. However, by the end of the first hour, you couldn’t tell who was Finnish and who wasn’t. That’s the magic of the sauna. And maybe that peat mud had some magic after all.

The Uimolan Savusauna has been in operation since 1996 and the smoke sauna was rebuilt and improved in 2004. I highly recommend that you give it a try if you haven’t already. At only 90 euros for the smoke sauna and 40 euros for the peat treatment, it is certainly excellent value for money. Bring your own friends for a time you will never forget. The looks on their faces will be priceless too.

More information can be found by following this link:

http://www.uimolansavusauna.com

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