I wore my full-length black mink to North Avenue Beach. In January, not July.
Soon I warmed up by changing into shorts and a T-shirt to relax in a sauna facing Lake Michigan. I relaxed in the Fire and Ice Sauna Experience, which brings two mobile wood-fired saunas to the beach.
Owner Matt Obal, 37, has been lounging in saunas since he was a kid and uses it as a form of meditation.
"You go in there without a phone and work on your breath work and just try to not think about anything. It just feels good after you come out. Your endorphins are rushing. It's the same kind of feeling you get after a good, big workout, too," Obal told me on the 15-degree Saturday afternoon I visited.
Obal’s light bulb for beach saunas goes back to the early days of COVID-19. His company, Thunder Domes, built structures for restaurants when social distancing was the norm. Customers started requesting at-home saunas, and Obal, who has an engineering degree, saw a way to expand.
"I was wondering why Chicago doesn't have a winter activity other than ice skating. I can't really think of many other winter activities you can do, especially on the lakefront," Obal said. "It's pretty desolate out here, so we’re extending the beach season."
I welcome more activities because I try not to succumb to winter doldrums (well, polar vortex notwithstanding). Living in a climate with four seasons is enlivening and marks the passage of time while ushering in rituals. Cold weather can be a balm: at-home coziness, cooking thick stews in a Dutch oven, slowing down with an engrossing novel or sipping on dark liquor craft cocktails.
Fire and Ice — the first such winter sauna concession vendor for the city's park district — operates from November to March. This season more are operating, including Open Sweat out of Oak Street Beach, and Chicago Sauna is expected to open next month at 57th Street Beach.
Reservations for the $30-$40 sessions are required for Fire and Ice, and private groups can rent both saunas and toggle between the two. A heated dome in the middle serves as a makeshift locker room. No jumping in frigid Lake Michigan for a cool off — buckets of water are available instead. The saunas operate off the grid with wood pellets and Obal brings in his own water.
I got acclimated with sauna culture during an extended visit to Finland; they are as ubiquitous as toilets. The health benefits include improved heart health, reduced inflammation and pain relief. On the day I experienced Fire and Ice, I saw groups come and go. I mistakenly didn’t bring flip-flops, so I quickly ran across the cold sand, which was just as tortuous as running in hot sand in the summer. Once inside, I took deep breaths in the 150-degree heat. Rolling my shoulders forward and back, I closed my eyes and smelled the cedar. A small window reflected the stillness of winter and sun shining over the frozen lake. It was beautiful. I meditated for about 20 minutes. When I ran back to the dome without shoes, I felt a wave of invigoration similar to the effects of the vegan smoothie I drank on the way there — or a good workout, like Obal said.
Chicagoans are hearty. I watched people bundled up to run along the lakefront while I warmed up in the sauna. We are ready for the sauna culture in wintertime. And I’m ready to come back for another Fire and Ice experience with my friends and family. In my fur coat, of course.
Natalie Y. Moore is a senior lecturer at Northwestern University.
