Postcards: Sauna Season

Jessica Surber loves being in the mountains, working with plants and exploring all that lies beyond her comfort zone. She divides her time between Peru and the Yukon.

SAUNA SEASON

One of my favourite parts of this time of year is reconnecting with my sauna. Some enjoy saunas all year round, but I always fi nd that I’d rather be doing other things in the summer, especially here in the Yukon. However, when the days start getting shorter and the temperature drops, there’s nothing better, in my opinion, than a really hot sauna on a chilly evening.

Saunas, like ice baths, have grown a lot in popularity in the last few years. Instagram is fi lled with pictures of stylish barrel saunas and wood-fi red hot tubs. The most-well-known sauna tradition, as well as the word sauna, has its origins in Finland, but the use of heat and steam for purifi cation and well-being is found all over the world.

After-sauna northern lights

The original saunas were all heated with wood but, in more recent years, infrared saunas have become very fashionable as well. The latter is a great option if you live in the city, and they can even be installed in a small corner of an apartment. I grew up with woodheated saunas and will always prefer the old-school traditional version over the modern one. I love to hear the crackling of the fi re and to smell the wood smoke. It feels ancient and elemental to me and is a great off-grid option, since all you need is a small stove and some fi rewood.

Whichever kind of sauna you decide to use is a matter of personal preference, but either way, the physical and emotional benefi ts that you can reap are endless. There are many scientifi c reports and studies online, if you’d like to know more about the medical explanations of these benefi ts, but here are some that I can vouch for from my own personal experience.

Better skin: Regular saunas improve circulation, increase collagen production and skin elasticity, reduce acne and help remove dead skin. In the winter, when we’re constantly bundled up in layers of clothes, our skin suffers, but after

an hour in the sauna, I always notice my skin feeling smoother and softer. If I manage to remember, I try to dry brush my skin before entering into the sauna, which helps open the pores and begins the exfoliation process.

Increased immunity: When I feel a cold coming on, one of the fi rst things I do is to take a sauna. Not only does regular sauna use help to fi ght off a cold, it also strengthens your immune system to prevent future illness. It’s a great idea to add an essential oil or two to the water that you’ll pour onto the hot stones: this will add additional health properties to the hot steam. Essential oils such as eucalyptus, rosemary and birch are great for a stuffy nose and for boosting immunity.

Helps relieve muscle soreness

and joint pain: Taking a sauna decreases infl ammation in the body and increases circulation, which brings with it many benefi ts such as relieving chronic pain and certain kinds of joint pain. Saunas also help to shorten recovery time after sports activities and exercise. To support this process, be sure to hydrate (before, during and after the sauna).

Relaxation, mental clarity and

reduction in depression: This may be one of my favourite benefi ts of using the sauna. To me it’s almost a form of meditation. It clears the cobwebs from my brain, helps me focus on my breathing and, since it’s so hot in the sauna, I’m forced to leave my phone outside. It helps me disconnect and connect at the same time. I always feel happier, less stressed and more revitalized afterwards, and I also sleep really well and deep after a sauna.

To me, the sauna is a sacred kind of place that should be entered into peacefully and respectfully. If you go into it stressed or annoyed, I’ve found that the heat will feel hotter and almost unbearable, at fi rst, but inevitably all of those emotions and tensions will leave your body and melt away with each drop of sweat.

I like the ritual of having a

sauna: preparing the fi rewood, lighting the stove, getting the water and towels ready and selecting some special essential oils. During the sauna, as well, there is the repetition of heat, steam and cold, over and over again. It’s a comforting and calming process. For me, the sauna is a very personal thing. I’m happiest inside, by myself, alone with my thoughts and my breath, witnessing the end of the day, the darkness settling in outside, the fi relight fl ickering on the walls and the sound of water hitting the hot rocks. However, the sauna can also be a relaxing social environment, a place to connect with people and to strengthen bonds between friends and family. This social aspect of camaraderie and friendship can also be very benefi cial for one’s well-being, in its own way.

There are general guidelines and suggestions for how long you should stay in the sauna, but each person is different and should do what is right for them. If you’re just starting out, ease into it. Listen to your body. The sauna is an invitation to reconnect with your body and with the different sensations you might feel. Just as much as I love the heat, I also love the shock of pouring cold water over myself from a bucket outside, feeling the freezing air on my skin and stepping out into the snow for a few minutes before heading back into the heat. In our sauna we have no electricity, and by the time I’m fi nished it’s often dark outside, with only the light of the moon refl ecting off the snow, or maybe the northern lights dancing overhead. I can think of no better way to fi ll the long, dark hours of a cold northern winter than relaxing in a sauna.

If you’re a newcomer to the world of saunas, there are a variety of ways that you can get your feet wet, so to speak, and begin to reap some of the benefi ts. The price of admission to the Canada Games Centre provides access to their sauna and steam room, and there’s a new local business called Yukon Sauna, which offers the “fi rst mobile sauna-rental service in the North.” It seems like a great idea for a fun weekend, or a way to try out a sauna to see if it’s something you’d like to build for yourself.

There are countless resources online about sauna building, as well as a few books, about saunas, at the Whitehorse Public Library. If you’re looking to buy an alreadymanufactured sauna or you are interested in seeing some examples of modern saunas, Nootka Saunas is a company based in B.C., and Almost Heaven Saunas is a sauna manufacturer in the U.S. that is partnered with the Finnish brand Harvia. n

Fire: the heart and soul of the sauna A sauna with a view

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MINE UPDATE

Maiden Mineral Resource Estimate at Raven

In September, Victoria Gold was pleased to report the inaugural Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the Raven Gold Deposit; located approximately 15 kilometres east of the Eagle Gold Mine.

The initial MRE comprises a total Inferred Mineral Resource of 1,070,239 ounces of gold for the nearsurface Raven Deposit.

The MRE represents the culmination of diamond drilling and surface exploration programs conducted on the Raven target through 2021. Results from the ongoing 2022 exploration drill program at Raven have not been included in the MRE and will be incorporated into subsequent resource updates. “Raven is a new discovery made by our team in 2018 through geophysics, geochemistry, prospecting, trenching and drilling along the contact of the Nugget intrusive, 15 kilometres east of the Eagle Gold Mine,” says Victoria Gold President & CEO John McConnell. “Follow-up exploration was hampered by the COVID-19 global pandemic, yet in three exploration seasons we have carried out Victoria Gold’s largest ever exploration program with 25,000 metres of drilling planned to expand Raven along strike and at depth.” Raven represents a potentially high-grade, on-surface gold deposit that lies at the extreme southeast contact of Nugget and represents the second largest intrusive ore body on the Dublin Gulch Property (second only to the Dublin Gulch stock, which hosts the Eagle Gold Mine).

The Eagle Gold Mine is situated within Victoria Gold’s 100 per cent-owned Dublin Gulch Property located approximately 375 kilometres north of Whitehorse and 85 kilometres north, northeast of the Village of Mayo, within the traditional territory of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun (FNNND). The company employs over 500 workers and contractors; half of which are Yukoners At Work and many are FNNND citizens. If you are a Yukoner with mining experience, Victoria Gold encourages you to become a Yukoner At Work. Visit the “Work For Us” page at vgcx.com/contact/work-for-us/ and send your resume to greatpeoplework@vgcx.com.