The first day of cold bathing was scheduled before dawn, and it was snowing. Many assumed, surely, this won’t happen today—not with a forecast low of 26°F, wind gusts up to 35 mph, and a “feels like” of 5°F. They were wrong.
Then came the second surprise: clothing was discouraged—and on day one, first-timers arrived in swimsuits like sane, responsible adults. The veterans seemed to think stripping down in a blizzard was a small detail. After the first plunge, the newbies shed the extra layer, too.
The First Dip
The cold bathing took place in Helsingborg, Sweden, on the Øresund Strait—the stretch of water separating Sweden from Denmark. Denmark’s Kronborg Castle sits on the facing shore—the inspiration for Shakespeare’s “Elsinore” in Hamlet. Kallis, Helsingborg’s northern cold-bathing spot, is where many take a first “dip,” as Mia Jansson, a dipping expert extraordinaire, calls cold bathing.
Mia describes the sensory effect after plunging in near-freezing water as “champagne bubbles on your skin.” She’s been dipping for fifteen years and claims, “I haven’t had a cold since I started.” Jansson helps newcomers overcome the initial dip jitters and explains that alternating cold baths with sauna use is like “exercising your arteries.”
The moment before a cold plunge is all about internal negotiation, and it quickly becomes clear that much of the experience depends on mental discipline. A common strategy is a mantra—something steady to hold onto when instinct argues for retreat.
The initial shock of the frigid water is tempered by the jolt of walking naked, with only a towel, through gusty winds and snow from the sauna to the ladder that descends past snow-covered rocks into the sea. It helps that the varied shades of gray in all directions—sky, sea, and buildings—impart a meditative calm to the experience.
Helsingborg didn’t invent cold bathing, but it has been part of the city’s identity for generations. The roots of this tradition go back to the city’s original health tourism spot, Ramlösa Brunnspark, whose mineral spring opened in 1707, and to the coastline’s long history of cold bathhouses and winter swimming.
The city celebrates its winter wellness heritage with an annual Cold-Bathing Week (“Kallbadsveckan”) in February. Its elevated bathhouses and piers, built for dipping, show that for those looking for the real experience, it’s here.
In the North, winter isn’t endured—it’s turned into pleasure: heat, cold, and community, designed for maximum wellness.
The Sauna Persuasion
In Helsingborg’s bathhouses, there are separate saunas and dressing rooms for men and women, and “no swimsuits” is encouraged and sometimes required. Kallis offers a comforting combo of lavender-scented sea salt and hammam towels upon arrival. Some wear towels in the sauna or to the platform above the ladder to the sea. Most cold-bathing facilities have saunas, and the sauna is the precursor to the plunge—it’s the Scandinavian workaround.
A steamy sauna prepares the body for the cold, once-unthinkable plunge so that the freezing Øresund Strait begins to sound . . . enticing. In this part of the world, it’s all about contrast—heat and ice, shock and calm—arranged in a feel-good ritual, one that happens to have wellness benefits.
Evidence on cold immersion is still evolving, but anecdotal reports, like Mia’s, suggest positive effects on stress, well-being, and inflammatory markers. Regular sauna use is linked to lower risks of cardiovascular disease and overall mortality, but it’s not a cure-all. Studies are limited, and there are risks (cold shock/heart strain) for some individuals.
But the mental effect can be immediate: the sense of achievement, the quiet confidence that comes from doing the thing that looked impossible in the dark. After cold bathing before dawn—even in snow—the day has a different texture. There’s a bounce in the step. Cold, but alive.
Aufguss and the Art of Heat
Still a relatively niche sauna practice outside European resorts and wellness centers, Aufguss is loosely translated from German as “infused water,” but it also involves rhythmic towel movements to circulate heat and sometimes includes a performance ritual that makes you forget you’re sitting in a pool of your own sweat.
It begins with a trained Aufgussmeister placing ice balls infused with essential oils onto hot stones, releasing waves of scented steam in a sauna that can reach around 90°C (about 195°F). As the steam rises, the Aufgussers wave towels to conduct the heat through the room in deliberate, sweeping motions set to music. The ritual typically ends with a cold plunge, completing the hot–cold contrast cycle.
The Aufguss was led by Denmark’s six-time world champion, Aufgussmeister Lay Pang Ong, better known as “Pang,” a trainer to sauna masters worldwide, along with a well-trained group of Aufgussers.
The interactive performance covered their interpretation of variations in sauna/cold-bathing experiences in Scandinavia, from Norway to Finland. In Denmark, the dip occurs before the sauna, and rosemary-infused snowballs are melted over the coals as the room warms. Sweden was softer, with an infusion of lavender and pine that evoked Swedish forests, and small oak branches dipped in water were held overhead to create a gentle “rain” effect.
Norway is known for its extreme cold bathing, with groups like Up Norway leading Arctic plunges near the North Pole, experiences bordering on extreme sport. The Aufguss visit to Norway brought a sense of the wilderness with the Aufgussers gently slapping guests arms and legs with the wet oak branches.
Finland is the hotbed of sauna practice, with a population of about 5.5 million and roughly 3.3 million saunas. For the Finnish experience, the heat and steam rose, and the Aufgussers increased their towel-waving and slapped soft birch branches against guests’ arms and backs with slightly greater vigor.
Where the Diehards Dip
The final day of the winter wellness excursion took place at the Järnvägsmännens Pier: no frills, just diehard locals taking the plunge sans sauna, walking to the water in their bathrobes and flip flops, doing the dip, then standing around chit-chatting with friends who have done the same for years. There’s even a nearby coffee shop, Cafe 1886, that offers half-price coffee to the “white robes” who stop in after bathing.
That’s the trick the North plays. It doesn’t convince anyone that winter is warm. It convinces them they’re stronger than they thought—and that pleasure can be engineered, one deliberate plunge at a time.
Practical Tips for Cold Bathing
1. Start short; don’t macho it. Early dips can be simple: get in the water, lower to the chin, stand up, move quickly up the ladder, wrap a towel around, and move briskly to the sauna on numb, prickly needle feet. With repetition, time naturally increases.
2. Sauna first; it’s not a rule, but it’s a darn good idea. The dip/sweat works well precisely because each makes the other appealing.
3. Don’t do it alone for the first time. Use a guide like Mia for reassurance and conviviality. Control your breathing before you enter; cold shock is real.
