Nordic trip 2019 – sauna trip went wrong
After FinTrailO day 2 in Tampere, I went to a sauna. I had read from tourist websites that people normally use sauna in combination with swimming, for example, swim – sauna, or sauna – swim, or even alternate between them.
After I changed my clothes, I first went swimming for about 28 minutes. The lake temperature was 5°C at that time. Afterwards, I entered the sauna. However, not long after I entered the sauna, people thought that I was in trouble and pulled me to the hospital. They said that I was shaking and I was talking nonsense so they thought I was in trouble. I admit that I was really shaking at that time, but I was shaking mildly (i.e. controllable), not as vigorous as when I was in Stockholm. However, I thought that shaking was normal after swimming in such temperature and it was unavoidable. I didn’t know what nonsense I talked, maybe because of language barrier (only Finnish is natively used in Tampere).
I was discharged from hospital after checking I had no problem. I asked what my body temperature was at the moment when I was pulled from the sauna, and it was 35.1°C. However the definition of clinical hypothermia is below 35°C. I then posted the full experience, saying that “my sauna trip was ruined”, to a Facebook group. This made the community concerned as people thought that I was risking my life. They told me that directly entering the sauna after cold water swimming is actually dangerous, and some even told me that I shouldn’t swim for this long in this temperature with my lack of experience. They explained that the people are doing quick dips between saunas, but not for 20+ minutes swims. However I had never seen travel websites telling us not to swim 20+ minutes before using the sauna!
One thought on “Nordic trip 2019 – sauna trip went wrong”
“However I had never seen travel websites telling us not to swim 20+ minutes before using the sauna!”
Well, I guess there isn’t a single travel website in the world to warn a first timer not to iceswim for 28 minutes in +5C water on one go! Not to mention to not hit the sauna +70C/+80C straight away!
However, it sure looks like such a warning would be handy as common sense seems to be not so common anymore.
Luckily there was no hospital visit needed after your next half an hour winterswim on Pirita beach…