Between 1999 and 2007 I made 6 trips to Russia and Finland as part of an American-lead humanitarian partnership with Finnish nationals inside of Russia. On these trips I had my introduction to both Finnish sauna and Russian “banya”. And I very soon became a “true believer”, never having previously experienced the exhilarating heat, sweat, cold plunges and camaraderie of these ancient traditions of Northern Europe.
My very first “virginal” hot session was in a Russian banya. I was a guest of honor in the home of a Russian family. We enjoyed a plentiful and hearty meal, and, wanting to be polite, I enjoyed ample portions of everything offered to me. After supper, I thought we’d head back to our lodgings, but our hosts had other ideas. We were going to do banya, they explained. We went out back to a small cabin, the chimney of which was expelling evidence of a roaring fire within. We undressed and entered the hot room. It was dark and very hot. Three levels of wooden benches were available for sitting. Since I was the guest, I was prompted to go to the third level up, where the heat was incredibly intense. The first ladleful of water on hot stones nearly roasted me. It did not take long for the intense heat and my over-stuffed belly to combine for a dizzying time in that banya penthouse. After hanging on for as long as I could to preserve a minute bit of dignity, I escaped and lay on the floor of the outer room! When the banya was over, the locals began eating again! I couldn’t even consider it. The room was still spinning!
After that Russian banya experience, I was a bit skeptical when the Finns were keen to sauna again later in the first trip. But at least I knew by this time to eat only lightly before or during the hot session and that one was free to come and go from the heat without feeling the need to prove anything to anyone. The Finns also had a lake to jump into in between rounds, which seemed like (and was) a great idea! After that I was hooked! On three of my subsequent trips, one or both of my teenage daughters also came along. They really enjoyed sauna too and the three of us soon began wondering how we might duplicate the experience back home. This, of course, involved convincing their uninitiated mother that this was an investment worth making! Eventually our yearning prevailed.
During these trips to “Sauna land” I became friends with David Tilly, a Finnish-American who was also part of the humanitarian team. He had built a sauna at his home in a neighboring town in the U.S. and eventually invited me to join him. These times in this friend’s sauna convinced me we could indeed bring the experience home as we had hoped! I didn’t realize that people in the US already did this sauna thing too. Coincidently, this local sauna friend was also a builder by trade and agreed to construct a sauna for my family on our property. By now it was some 12 years after that first Russian banya initiation.
Before my sauna was built and while still frequenting the friend’s sauna, we were joined by another Finn who’d come with his family to the US 10 years or so before and who missed his sauna life back home dearly. He did not have a sauna at home but enjoyed the Russian baths in New York City as a close approximation. That new sauna friend turned out to be the president of the North American Sauna Society, Eero Kilpi, though I didn’t know that at the time.
In 2010 our home sauna was finished. It had an 8’x8’ hot room with a wood-fired Finnish heater, a same-sized changing room and an outdoor shower. We also built a stone patio outside with a fire pit and a Japanese-style soaking tub which we use as a cold plunge. Dave the builder attended the inaugural session and brought Eero along as well. Right there our sauna club was formed as the 3 of us sauna bathed together regularly and invited numerous other friends to join us.
Today, some 13 years later, we have roughly 15 sauna “club” members with typically about 8-10 attending at any given gathering. We recently decided to name our club The Stamford Steam Works after our location in southwestern Connecticut. T-shirts are forthcoming as soon as we settle on a club logo. Having the president of the North American Sauna Society as a founding member has also lead to our status as a certified authentic “Traditional Sauna”. In 2016, at Eero’s invitation, we hosted the Finnish Consulate General to the UN at a club gathering and had coverage by our local newspaper!
Along with the bathing and cold plunging, lasting friendships continually emerge as together we also enjoy a fire pit, some cigars, traditional snacks like sausages, fried fish, pickles and cheese, and a variety of cold beverages. This sauna club now meets roughly every 3 weeks or so except during the hottest days of summer. We are proud of our international membership including Finns, Ukrainians, Caribbeans, eastern Europeans, and others along with a mix of Americans. We have several father-son pairs and an age mix from about 30 to over 60. It has, in fact, become a very important part of our male friend groups. And our sauna is not just a men’s club gathering but also a place for enjoying sauna with family and our other friends of either gender. It figures prominently in our entertaining and we feel it has been worth every penny of our investment. Now, as we enter our retirement years, we are planning to add another sauna on our property in Vermont!
