Sparkling Hill Resort: Cold Sauna / Cryotherapy in Vernon, BC, Canada

In the Cold Sauna (Cryotherapy) with Tinus Pietersen at Sparkling Hill Resort in Vernon, British Columbia.

The -110°C air shocked my system and seeped into my bare arms and legs like a feast. The fuzzy headband I was wearing kept my ears warm but the mask couldn’t stop my nose hairs from freezing. Welcome to the coldest sauna in North America, found at Sparkling Hill Resort in Vernon, British Columbia.

In the Okanagan Valley, one of the warmest spots in Western Canada, there is a brand new spa perched on a ridge. It houses a cold sauna (Cryotherapy) that boasts a temperature of -110°C and you go in there wearing shorts and a sleeveless top.

Cryotherapy
Before I go in for my first time, I sit down with Spa Manager Tinus Pietersen to drill him with questions: Why -110°C? Why three minutes max.? Why bare skin?

“If you come to our place… you’re going to go away much more alive,” Tinus tells me. It’s hard not to be at -110°.

The Cryotherapy Machine that Makes the Cold Sauna Work at Sparkling Hill Resort in Vernon, BC.

The temperature, backed up by medical research, affirms that -110°C is the ideal temperature for the maximum effect. Not -90°, not -130°. Your skin has to drop to 5°C for your body to reap the benefits. Exposing as much skin as possible helps with this, although covering your toes (with socks and running shoes) and fingers (with gloves), protects the extremities from, well, freezing.

As for the three minutes, max., research has shown that any more than that has no effect on the benefits. So why stay in there longer, right? Usually a first timer will go in for a minute and a half, up to two minutes, and then stay for the full three minutes by the second time and thereafter.

The Cold Sauna
That all works for me; let’s get to it. After gearing up in the gloves, mask and headband they give you, I made it to the two minute and 10 second mark, which is supposedly pretty good. (I’m sure they say that to everyone.) By the second time, though, I was up to three minutes and feeling pretty darn good. And cold.

The Cold Sauna Penguins at Sparkling Hill Resort in Vernon, BC: The one with the head down is when you come in; the one with the head up is when you leave!

It’s difficult to say whether a couple of treatments made a positive impact on my health; there’s no magic in it, that’s for sure. A few things that I did notice over the course of four days at Sparkling Hill Resort were:

• I slept about an hour less than usual and had the same amount of energy, if not more.
• Combined with a massage and some stretching exercises in the steam rooms, my permanently tight neck actually released quite a bit. When I went into the cold sauna, the chill went right into my neck, obviously emphasizing where I need some attention.
• An overall bubbly-ness and inability to stop smiling, which could have also been due to the sweeping views of Okanagan Lake, the down-to-earth vibe of the resort, or the Swarovski crystal architecture found throughout the building. (Sparkling Hill Resort is an investment by Gernot Langes-Swarovski of the Swarovski family.) His crystals are showcased both in the common areas to spectacular effect, and in each room with crystal “stars” on the roof, a crystal “fireplace” and details on chairs, mirrors and drawers.

I guess the point is that it takes more than one thing to make a person well, and they’re certainly offering many options at Sparkling Hill Resort.

(Read my article on this experience on BCLiving.ca.)

Tags: -110°C, bc, British Columbia, canada, Cold Sauna, coldest sauna in North America, Cryotherapy, crystal architecture, Gernot Langes-Swarovski, Okanagan Lake, Okanagan Valley, Sparkling Hill Resort, Swarovski crystal, Swarovski family, Tinus Pietersen, Vernon, western canada