New Sauna Terminology

Miia and I had us a fine ole sauna the other night but trying to keep up with where we were in the process was a challenge. We needed some linguistic assistance.

You see, when you sauna you get into a rhythm. You sit in 80 C + heat and as if that wasn't hot enough you throw water on the rocks to add the scalding effect of steam, and you sweat. When you've had all you can stand and you can't stand no more, you jump in the lake, roll in the snow, jump through the ice, or just stand in the winter air. Then you down a beer and just enjoy that tingly feeling all over your skin. It's magical. You repeat the process several times, usually with the steam portion getting more intense with each sweat. It's easy to lose track of time let alone how many times you have gone through the rotation. Hence the need for some new language around this. Here is what we came up with:

Sweat. This is the phase in which you sit in the sauna, create steam, and sweat.
Cool. This is the phase when you expose yourself to the other temperature extreme by throwing yourself in a lake, snow, through a hole in the ice, or even dump cold water over yourself.
Tingle. The phase when you sit and tingle and usually enjoy a beverage of some sort.
Skin. A skin is one rotation of the whole process and can include all of the above; however, it is defined by the sweat. No sweat, no skin. You can sweat, then skip the cool and just tingle, and that is a full skin.

So, how does that help you keep track of where you are in the process? Well, say you're sitting in the sauna and you are getting a little hungry. You can say to your sauna buddy, "what skin is it?" Your sauna partner answers either, "third skin," or "third skin sweat," or "third sweat." If the question was asked during the tingle, the answer would be "third skin tingle." To say 'third tingle' would not be proper, because the tingle does not necessarily occur in every skin. It is also inappropriate to mention the stage of the skin before the number of the skin, such as 'cool of the third skin.' The proper terminology is "Third skin cool."

If these rules are prudently followed, then we all enjoy the sauna without getting confused. And never, ever, pee on the rocks, gentlemen.

Chris

ps. I have only one chapter to go in the first draft of the book!