# At the South Pole, there is a club you can only join when it is minus 73 outside.

- Series: [Saunantakaa](https://miu.fm/saunantakaa.md)
- Published: 2026-10-09
- Page: https://miu.fm/saunantakaa/at-the-south-pole-there-is-a-club-you-can-only-join-when-it

## Story

At the South Pole, there is a club you can only join when it is minus 73 outside.

The 300 Club is a winter tradition at the Amundsen-Scott station, not an official one. The rules are simple. Wait for minus 100 Fahrenheit outside. Heat the sauna to 200 Fahrenheit, that is 93 degrees Celsius. Sit up to ten minutes. Then go outside wearing only boots, walk round the Ceremonial South Pole and back. Not too fast: breathe too hard and air that cold can hurt your airways.

Plus 200, minus 100. Three hundred degrees in minutes. In 1799 Acerbi watched Finns go from a 70 degree sauna into 30 below: one hundred degrees in one step. These people do one hundred and sixty-seven. We bow.

But minus 100 does not come every winter. In 2007 the temperature dipped into three digits, but too briefly for the sauna to heat up. At one of the coldest places where people live, they were waiting for the sauna. In Finland, we know that feeling.

Please don't try this at home.

Would you join the 300 Club?

Sources: Wikipedia, 300 Club; Bill Spindler, South Pole Station history (southpolestation.com); Giuseppe Acerbi, Travels through Sweden, Finland and Lapland (1802).
Sounds: snow wind and forest recordings by Yle Arkisto (Freesound), CC BY 4.0. Other sounds CC0 or Apple-licensed.

## Watch

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeR5I3ZGrbN/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1094048646887869/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xuQQzhRBO0s

---

Under copyright law, a quotation must name its source: Miuradio, https://miu.fm/saunantakaa/at-the-south-pole-there-is-a-club-you-can-only-join-when-it

© 2026 Miuradio, https://miuradio.com