The Sauna World Championships Is For Hotties

by Willy Volk on

If you’re hoping to get your blood pumping this August, you may want to consider hot-footing it to Heinola, Finland for the 2007 Sauna World Championships. Known as the world’s hottest event, this extreme contest — scheduled for the 3rd and 4th — is an exercise in willpower and self-control. Quite simply, men and women from all over the world sit in a sauna for as long as they can, while temperatures approach 110ºC — that’s 230ºF to you and me!

The rules are simple:

  • Every 30 seconds, half a liter of water is thrown on the stove, which increases the heat.
  • Competitors must sit with buttocks and thighs on the seat.
  • Posture must be erect; elbows must stay on the knees, and arms have to be in an upright position.
  • Touching skin with hands or disturbing the other competitors is forbidden.
  • The last person to leave the Sauna is the World Sauna Champion.

If you want to learn what the experience is like, check out Outside‘s totally uncool take on the event, or this quick piece from Joshua Davis. To get a sense of what the heat can do to your mind, have a listen to the event’s official theme song. It is, indeed, “Hot, hot, hot, hot, very, very, hot!”

[Via Roadjunky]

Sleddog Vacations: A Winter Travel Adventure

by Jamie Rhein on

Sometimes when one is looking for information on one topic, another topic appears. Such is what happened when I came across sleddog vacations. I wasn’t actually looking for information on sleddog vacations. They hadn’t occurred to me, but somehow with a click of a mouse, there I was wandering through websites on a winter sport that welcomes participants.

Winterdance Dogsled Tours in Ontario, Canada offers two-hour to full-day excursion packages, as well as a moonlight tour. You can stay overnight at their cottage or at one of the nearby resorts. Even with the two-hour tour you can try your hand at driving the team with an experienced guide as an instructor.

Ontario, Canada also has several sleddog races, although according to the website of Ontario Federation of Sleddog Sports, the lack of snow has led to some postponements and cancellations. They are scheduled through the first week of March and there are contact numbers to find out what’s up with each. Ontario Dog Sleding Getaways website has a list of resorts that offer sleddog vacations.

For some hardcore sleddog travel adventure, head to Iceland, Finland, Lapland, Norway or Sweden. Each has sleddog trips that run from a few days to a little over a week. I found a list of several choices at Adventure Sport Holidays. Lest you think this is totally roughing it travel where you freeze at night curled up in a sleeping bag trying to create warmth with your body heat, lodge and cabin stays are the nightly fare. Some packages like Dog Sledding Along the Finnish-Russian Border include saunas, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and elk viewing.

Free Sherpa Guides in Helsinki

by Neil Woodburn on

There’s nothing better than traveling to a foreign country and having a local show you around.

Unfortunately, it is never that easy to find a local willing to take the time to walk some foreigner around their home town and show them the sites. The exception, of course, is hiring a private guide. Those tend to be expensive, however.

Last summer, City Sherpa in Helsinki, Finland, combined the best of both worlds and provided a service where local experts could show tourists around free of charge. Finnish volunteers posted short bios about themselves online and a brief description of their area of specialty, ranging from music, to art, to history, and more. Visitors merely had to email the guide they found most interesting and if they weren’t busy, a tour would be arranged.

There doesn’t appear to be any news on if the service will continue this upcoming summer, but the bios are still online and so are the email contacts. So, if you happen to be setting off to Helsinki, shoot one of them an email and see if they are still performing this great service.

Finland’s Snow Hotel

by Neil Woodburn on

It is that time of year again. Despite a relatively bad season throughout the rest of Europe, Scandinavia has received enough cold and snow to open up their annual snow and ice hotels. We’ve posted before about the most famous of these, the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, but haven’t brought to your attention the very impressive Snow Castle located in Kemi, on the northern coast of Finland.

As you might imagine, EVERYTHING is made of snow. Of course, there are wooden doors, glass light bulbs, sleeping bags (no beds!) and a few other amenities from non-snow material, but for the most part, when you check into the Snow Hotel, you check into the world’s largest igloo.

Like most other hotels, the Snow Hotel also has its own restaurant. The Snow Restaurant features tables made from ice and seats covered with reindeer fur.

I was initially going to post just one photo from their site, but after checking out their photo gallery, I was so blown away with the architecture and workmanship I had to turn this post into a little photo essay honoring past and present Snow Hotels.

Northern Lights Finland

by Erik Olsen on

Neil has posted here several times about the Northern Lights, and each time he does, I am reminded of the fact that I have never seen them. This bothers me. Seeing the Northern Lights, in fact photographing them, has long been a life list goal of mine, and the fact I’ve never seen anything other than pictures bothers me. Well, pictures is what I have, so for now I have to stick to them.

As you probably know, to see the Northern Lights, you have to go North. Easy enough, right. But where? Well, Canada is a good start. But another place, where you can get not just a wonderful full of the lights, but also have a wonderful travel experience, is Finland. Finland has long long been on my list of MUST-VISIT countries. No question about it. I’ve wanted to walk the cobblestone roads of Helsinki and sip aquavit there (not to mention check out the lovely Finnish women) for much of my life. And as I say, now I have another reason to go. Here, see what I mean. Check out this series of amazing photos of the Northern Lights in Finland and tell me it wouldn’t be great to go there? Man, I’m ready to buy my tix now.