Sauna culture wins Canadian converts as mobile businesses bring the heat to them

Smoke wafts from a black wooden hut parked on Alfresco Lawn, a quiet residential street in the Beaches neighbourhood of Toronto. It’s a grey Saturday morning, the last of winter holding on. One by one, women appear on the street, dressed in a peculiar uniform: bathing suits under waterproof swim parkas, toques, mitts and neoprene booties.There’s laughter, familiarity and anticipation as the women make their way across the beach, an empty expanse at 8:30 a.m. They disrobe, link arms and walk into Lake Ontario, a bracing 3 C.