Sauna-Timo and the fine darkness of the smoke sauna

Timo Kaukonen heats the saunas at the Sports Institute of Finland in Vierumäki. He got the nickname Sauna-Timo sixteen years ago.

Seven hours of smoke

A smoke sauna has no chimney. While it heats, the smoke fills the whole sauna room, and by the time the bathers step in the smoke is gone – but the scent stays in the walls and ceiling. Few places are as black as the inside of a smoke sauna. “But it’s a fine kind of darkness,” Timo says.

“The smoke sauna is ready about seven hours after I turn up here.”

Raised in the sauna

The sauna was a big part of Timo’s life from childhood. The example came from his father, and at best they took a sauna three times a day.

Sixteen years ago, one sauna session nearly ended in disaster: at an ill-fated world championship, Timo suffered burns to more than 70 per cent of his skin. Much in his life changed, but his love of the sauna never died. Today Timo talks above all about the calming, gentle effect of the sauna.

“I can’t explain it in any fancy way, but you just feel good when you come out of the löyly.”