All three of Värma's founders call Truckee home — a town built around the rhythms of mountain life, where the outdoors isn't a backdrop but a daily practice. Running through the heart of that landscape is the Truckee River, one of the Sierra Nevada's most iconic waterways, fed by the snowmelt of the Tahoe Basin and winding its way down through the mountains before reaching Reno, the same city where every Värma sauna is built.

That river is more than geography to us — it's a through line. The tradition of sauna has always lived close to water. In Scandinavia, saunas were built at the edge of lakes and rivers, the plunge into cold water as essential to the ritual as the heat itself. Here in the Sierra, we have that same invitation at our doorstep — step out of the heat, and the river is waiting. The contrast of fire and cold water, of sweat and snowmelt, is something our team knows firsthand. It's the same feeling we build into every sauna we make.