Ice Baptism: Winter Swimming in Finland

Whether it's a Finnish sauna or a dip in an icy lake, Finns seem to love the extreme. Winter is coming and they are returning to their national pastime called "avanto" which means "hole in the ice".

Photographer Markku Lahdesmaki documented the phenomenon of winter swimming while traveling to his hometown of Tampere in southern Finland. His portraits of bathers make me shudder! “Usually, when you go to the lake in January, you don’t expect to see people swimming there,” says the photographer. “But Finland is an unusual place.”

There were a lot of bathers on Lake Rahaniemi - despite the sub-zero temperature. The avanto ritual goes hand in hand with another Finnish pastime, the sauna. The temperatures in this traditional bath range between 60 and 100 degrees Celsius. Walruses go to the sauna before or after swimming in an icy lake.

The photographer himself also plunged into the cold water of the lake - six times! “It was an amazing experience: spiritual, exciting, life-giving and, of course, COLD!” Markku says.

(Total 10 photos)

Source: cnn.com

1. A walrus woman in Tampere.

2. Lake Rahaniemi.

3. Avanto and sauna.

4. Bathers plunge into ice water before or after the sauna.

5. The photographer soon joined the walruses.

6.

7. Some wear hats.

8. Winter swimming is a popular entertainment in the New Year and on the days of Epiphany frosts.

9. There are about two million saunas for 5.5 million people in Finland.

10. The photographer himself ended up dipping into the icy water of the lake six times!