I have always been interested in outdoor activities and started skiing at the age of six.This season I have been skiing a lot. Travelling as much as I can on my student budget to find the best conditions possible. In the last few months, all that has been on my mind is checking the weather a couple times a day and if the forecast looks good, I’ll pack my skis as fast as possible and jump on the first train and go powder hunting.

My family and I moved from Bergen to Voss when I was 5 years old and settled down right next to the ski resort. So it was quite natural that I would spend my spare time in the mountains.  But my interest in camping in the outdoors would not rise to the surface until the year of 2004. I bought at tent and a sleeping bag and headed for the mountains in my hometown. The feeling of living primitively and waking up in the morning feeling a bit cold certainly felt like my game. This I want to do more!

In the years to come I started to invest in more equipment and preparing my self for one of my biggest desires, sleeping outside in the wintertime. It was after watching Lars Monsen crossing Canada on the TV in 2005 this idea would surface. Watching him battling with very cold and extreme conditions certainly made me want to do the same thing. And that’s what I did. The feeling of conquering the cold, snowy and windy conditions in the mountains made me feel alive and good about my self. And I knew from there on that this is what I would keep on doing for the rest of my life.

In late 2006 I moved to Oslo to start my student life. I’m currently studying Law at the University in Oslo. My thoughts all along were that as a student I would have all the time in the world to fulfil my main goal. Spending as much time in the outdoors so that I would gain the experience I needed for my growing plans on going on a real expedition. After reading countless books about the North- and South Pole, Ed Viesturs 8000m peak endeavour and most of Lars Monsen’s books I knew that this is what I want to do. I certainly did get the time to spend in the mountains but I lacked the physical stamina that I would need to fulfil my dreams on going on  longer expeditions. I have always been an on and off trainer when it comes to spending time at the gym and running. I would train intensively for three or four months only to fall back in old tracks just spending time in my couch in front of the TV. I think the main reason for this is that I didn’t have a specific goal that I was training for. Just a vague thought of going to an arctic environment in the future. This would all change in the year of 2009. With barely any physical stamina at all I set out to run Oslo Half Marathon 21 kilometres in the streets of Oslo. For the first time in my life I felt scared of failing and knew that I had to be well prepared to pull this one of and not fail. So I started training four to five times a week both running and cycling. This has resulted in running becoming a passion of mine. This year I will be running at least two half marathons, one in Chamonix and one in Oslo. But my favourite running discipline is uphill running in the mountains, so my plan is to participate in a couple of those during this year.

In 2008 I started working at Sportsnett. I saw this as a great opportunity to infiltrate the expedition community and meeting people with the right experience on both expeditions and equipment. I must admit that working close with Sjur Mørdre and hearing him talk about his 11 crossings of Greenland and his trips to both North and South Pole didn’t make me less interested in doing this my self. So when I met up with Christian Eide in late 2009 and he asked me if I would join him on an expedition to Greenland in August 2010, I just couldn’t say no. After all, I had promised my self earlier that year that from know on I wouldn’t do just that. This is also the reason why it took hardly any convincing at all from Terje to make me join this expedition to Greenland. And two crossings of the icecap in one year will certainly give me much wanted experience for my future projects.

It’s no secret that my main goals are reaching both Poles unsupported and perhaps solo. I will most definitely try to reach the South Pole solo, but I’m uncertain if I have what it takes to reach the North Pole solo. And if I cope well with altitude I will most certainly try to climb some 8000m peaks. These projects will definitely demand a lot physically, mentally and financially, but I strongly believe that everything you set your mind to can and will be done. I have always said, “If you have the right qualifications you could throw a rock to the moon” So with the right mindset and preparations I strongly believe that these project will become a reality. I’m already in the process of connecting with sponsors and many of my role models have agreed to help me along the way. People like Cecilie Skog, Børge Ousland and Jarle Trå. The Race is most definitely on!

But for now I’m just looking forward to train with Terje in the mountains of Norway and contributing with my skills and knowledge to make our quest on the Greenland icecap a success.

-Christian

For over two years now, the Arctic dream has been occupying a large portion of my life. In this period I have also moved from Oslo, bought a house in the countryside of Nøtterøy from the 1920s and our second child was born 1 1/2 years ago. It has also been a lot of work related travelling after the move, since I commute 100 kilometers to Oslo three days per week and also travel inside an outside Europe to meet with work clients. This has had tremendous consequences in my daily life, both positive and negative. Finally it came to a point where I had to choose what was most important to me, and I started questioning myself why I really wanted to fulfill this quest. In the end, I could not see any other reasons to complete the expedition but “looking good” and building a public reputation. These were simply not good enough to outweight the impact the preparations and expedition itself had for my Family.

I must admit that I really was afraid to tell Terje about my decicion, this late in the game. How would he take it? Would he be able to fulfill his dream? It has been four weeks since I informed him, and a lot of things has happened since then. Obviously, Terje was dissapointed, but I strongly feel that he understood and accepted my decision. We have discussed several scenarioes and Terje is not exactly the guy that postpones things.

Luckily, Terje is still going to cross Greenland in May 2010 and the Expedition has got a new member. I’m still 100% commited to support the Greenland Expedition 2010 and I wish for a successful experience without the big surprices.

Since March 2008 I have got into a training routine from not exercising at all for years. I have spent dozens of nights in tent, majority of them in Vinter time. In total, I have spent weeks hiking and skiing in the Norwegian mountains and countryside, I have attended Glacier training and later experiences. I also got my “Brattkort” in-doors climbing certificate last autumn, and I have been climbing weekly since.

Note! I may still publish blog posts here in the future if Terje allows me to .

- Petter

During this period, the financial crisis hit us hard. We expected our apartment to be easily sold, but it turned out not to. We spent over NOK 30 000 on advertising online and in newspapers, had the real estate broker display our apartment approximately 20 times and sold it for 10% below our asking price after 3 months for sale in the open market.

The house was built in 1925, and we immediately started to plan how to redecorate the kitchen, living rooms and master bedroom. Well, it didn’t go that way. We soon realized that we had to build a new kitchen, tear down the old walls in the master bedroom and build a new one. The former owners of the house were serious smokers, so we actually had to paint the walls and ceiling in every room to get rid of the yellow tar stains and nicotine smell. During this period of time, we lived in my old bedroom in my parent’s house. This was quite a challenge, both for us and my parents.

We took over the new house on July 20th and moved in September 11th, four days before Ingunn gave birth to Magnus. That was a close call – puh! If you have small children, you probably know what I am going through right now – sleepless nights, unpredictable female hormones, the big brother being jealous, no intimacy and no social life.

But, everything must come to an end, and I have started to plan small wildlife expeditions with and without Terje – and am planning on a late night on town with my old friends.

Terje has been spamming this with his technical details about mounting sledges, ropes and tires and has contacted almost the entire Norwegian expedition community.  I’ll try to catch up on blogging and will try out the old-worn-out-tires-training-rig one of these days.

As the winter season is fading into memory I can’t help but being thankful for the opportunities we have been blessed with. When it comes to preparing for a four week trip across the Greenland ice cap, Norway is the place to be. Among others, Robert F. Scott trained in Norway before he left for his legendary Antarctic expedition in 1911.

Yesterday I completed the book “Grønland på langs” (Greenland Lengthways), by Jon Michelet. For me, this will temporarily be the last in a long line of Norwegian books about polar expeditions. I am substituting the frigid literature for something warmer until fall comes in October. Next up is Hemingways “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”.