Neither knew about the other.

The news called it Finnish sauna madness. In Oulainen, the crew built theirs by frozen Lake Piipsjärvi for a village weekend. They had tried for the record before, but Guinness takes at least twelve weeks and they were late, so this time their chairman applied in September and kept every receipt, every photo. In Oulu, another builder made his for the Winter Swimming World Championships, with walls of ice 70 centimetres thick.

Then each heard about the other. Which one is bigger? The city's fits about forty people, its builder guessed; the village's had 73 at the peak. "If ours is even a centimetre bigger, wonderful," said the village chairman. The city builder laughed: "Good to have a little competition." By March, Guinness had not answered. A swimming magazine called the city's incredible, but not very warm.

Two biggest ice saunas in the world. A hundred kilometres apart. By summer, both were water again.

Would you sit in a sauna made of ice?

Sources: Yle, 3 March 2026; Outdoor Swimmer, 2 April 2026. Quotes are our translations from Finnish. The pictures are our drawings, not photographs.
Sounds: Freesound (CC0): Vrymaa, kyles, dster777, florianreichelt, mcmikai, Froey_, brunoboselli, vero.marengere, Leonardmedia.nl, HowardV, TRP; Mökkiperikunnalle sounds (CC0).