Some days ago I sent an email to friend of mine asking about Lars Monsen and his life these days. She sent me some youtube links with subtitles saying that his tv - show called “Nordkalotten 365” has been aired on traditional TV in Norway and that over 900 000 of Norway’s 4,6 million watched the show in average, and the marketshare was close to 50%! Amazing.

PS: Norwegian outdoors expert Lars Monsen embarks on an exciting adventure in Nordkalotten, the area of Scandinavia north of the Arctic Circle.

Canada has The Group of Seven, and Bergen has The Seven Mountain Hike. We summited only six of seven mountains: Ulriken, Fløien, Rundemannen, Sandviksfjell, Lyderhorn and Damsgård Mountain. We didn’t summit the last one in this group, namely  Løvstakken because the directional signs on these trails are really bad and difficult to find. For someone who is doing this hike for the first time in his life and on his own, it means several hours with extra kilometers. Here are some photos:

We got our summit stones from DSD yesterday, and we are ready now for heading over to Norway. I don’t know so much about DSD, but I know enough to say that discovery of DSD’s website was an uplifting experience. We are taking several ziplock bags containing painted stones from different summits and 60-page booklet entitled “An Adventure Muse” with us. The booklet contains quotes on the nature of adventures, journeys, life, wilderness, karma, love. We will place DSD’s summit stones on different places and summits in Europe, and if you are in the right place at the right time, you will find one.

PS: Thank you DSD, and so that you know: I’ll keep the one on the right side.  I hope you don’t mind.

Azazel is the story of four french alpine guides who did the first ascent of a new route on the Trango Pulpit in Pakistan. Taking it not seriously, they spent twenty days climbing vertical big wall before reaching 6050 m summit. One of them used  wingsuit and jumped all way down on day sixteen leaving rest of them  behind and with 300 kilograms of equipemnt to carry down. Great story of friendship.

for your nomadic ear: Inka Mbing - Call of the Mountain

ps Inka Mbing is from Taiwan’s Tayal ethnic group, one of the major aboriginal tribes. I am looking forward to see her at Riddu Riddu festival.