Restart 2022

Even if the new year did not start the way many of us thought it would I was still happy to see the last of 2021. It’s been a tough year from beginning to end. The first half of it was marked by a difficult work situation leading to a burnout. The last bit of…

Ten Years an Expat

A decade is a really long time. Yet when I think back about all that's passed and all that's been done since I left Belgium my departure feels even longer ago. First Sweden. Then Norway, New Zealand, Australia, more Sweden and Norway, Nepal. As I sit and write around the bonfire while darkness engulfs the…

Crossroads

For the last couple of months I've been making a second home on Hardangervidda, that notorious yet stunning high-mountain plateau that lies between us and the west. In times before, when I roamed the mountains overlooking the fjords during summers, I was never really drawn to the place. It just didn't have the same dramatic…

The Cancelled Season

A little over a year ago I posted some thoughts on time. Back then PJ and I were both on furlough, the pandemic had only just begun and many of us imaged that 2021 would be very different from 2020. But the reality of things hasn't changed all that much. Also this March we entered…

Beautiful Powder

Something has been missing this past November. As the evenings turned dark the mountains were black. There was no white. No snow, no powder and no ice. It was freakishly warm for most of the month, with temperatures reaching up to ten degrees even at 700m of altitude. Sometimes the degrees took a dip to…

Carl

Some of you already know the story of Carl. Somehow he's been on my mind a lot these past few weeks as I roamed the Norwegian high plateaus in the company of no one but my dogs and the occasional herd of wild reindeer. PJ and I have been talking about him on numerous occasions…

Time

I was writing something on Norway Trail, the first dog sled race PJ and I participated in. I thought it would be fun to give a little day to day overview of what that week looked like, of all the things we've learned along the way. But it seems so irrelevant now. It's only been…

Aarn Peak Aspiration Bodypack

Soon after we arrived in New Zealand we laid eyes on the first hiker using an Aarn bodypack. We did not dare to ask him, Graeme/Graham he was called, if it wasn't very awkward and uncomfortable walking with those pockets in the front of the body. How could he manage all the scrambling without stumbling…

Helsport Reinsfjell Superlight 2

Reinsfjell is a tent model just on the edge between a three- and four-season one.  After finishing Te Araroa with the Helsport Storsylen tent we wanted something lighter, especially since we were going to Australia next, without compromising too much on durability and comfort. We wanted exactly the same for our trip across the Nepal Himalaya…