Cecilie Skog
Series 5 Episode 1
The Explorer from the Home of the Giants with Cecilie Skog
Series 5 Episode 1
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In this episode of WHAT’S YOUR MAP? we are transported to the wild mountains of Southern Norway as Jerry speaks with adventurer and trained nurse Cecilie Skog. An extremely accomplished explorer, Cecilie has climbed all seven of the world's tallest mountains, trekked unsupported across Antarctica, and skied to the North Pole.
In this intimate conversation, Cecilie guides us through an area close to her home and her heart: the Hurrungane Range in Jotunheimen, known as the ‘Home of the Giants’. Cecilie brings Jerry her trusty hiking map of the Range, which she has used for years to plan familiar excursions as well as new routes. She is so familiar with this region that she no longer needs to take it with her.
Cecilie also shares stories from her beginnings as a mountain guide, to her career as a seasoned explorer. She recounts how she navigated tremendous loss, and ultimately found solace again in the outdoors following a dream trip to Greenland with her best friends.
To explore the map while you listen, click the image of the map below:
©Kartverket (Norwegian Mapping Agency), from norgeskart.no
Cecilie’s map is a 1:50 000-scale map of Jotunheimen Vest, a mountainous region in Southern Norway. Popular with hikers, climbers, and skiers, this area is famous for its breath-taking scenery with steep, imposing mountains and deep valleys.
It is unsurprising to find out that the region - home to the twenty-nine highest mountains in the country - is known as the ‘Home of the Giants’, a name that derives from the Nordic mythological term ‘Jötunheimr’ or ‘the lands inhabited by the jötnar’ (giants).
This comprehensive map, comparable to a British Ordnance Survey Landranger map, is packed with essential information for navigation, such as contour lines, the topography of mountain passes and glacial ridges, and the location of huts. The cartographic data is provided by the Norwegian Mapping Agency (Kartverket) in collaboration with the Norwegian Trekking Association (Den Norske Turistforening). A digital version of the map is also freely accessible via www.norgeskart.no.
©Arne Martin Güettler
Cecilie explains to Jerry that Hurrungane is the area she travels to the most within Jotunhiemen. Its environment is marked by extremes, with 10-month-long winters and brief but lush summers between July and August.
Hurrungane holds deep personal significance for Cecilie. Describing it as her ‘backyard’ and a ‘playground’, this is where she trained as a glacier guide and mountain climber since she was nineteen years old.
©Kartverket
The area is so familiar to her that she no longer needs a map to explore it. Cecilie says that looking at a map is more like consulting a diary - a reminder of her feelings and events during past journeys.
Tracing the map, Cecilie guides Jerry along a favourite route: from Turtagrø - a hotel that lies to the north of the Hurrungane Range, where the climbers, hikers and skiers start their adventures - across to the cabin at Skagastølsbu.
We hear stories of her climbs and the technicolour skies she has enjoyed from the summit - a stunning view.
Cecilie shares a deeply personal journey, discussing both the ambition and freedom of her career as a professional adventurer, and the profound grief she experienced following the tragic loss of her husband, Rolf Bae. In 2008, he and ten other climbers died on K2 - the single worst disaster in the mountain's history.
Cecilie was extremely fortunate to survive, and speaks candidly about how this tragedy altered her relationship with the mountains.
©Cecilie Skog
Cecilie recounts to Jerry how she rediscovered comfort and magic in the company of her best friends. Together, they spontaneously planned a expedition and trekked across Greenland in the spring of 2009.
Cecilie was able to return to her happy place under the vast, open skies of the great outdoors.
©Cecilie Skog
About Cecilie Skog
Cecilie Skog is a world-renowned adventurer.
Hailing from Ålesund on the north-west coast of Norway, Cecilie trained as a nurse in Oslo, and worked during the summers as a mountain and glacier guide in Jotunheimen. She began climbing in her late teens and studied Friluftsliv - which directly translates as ‘free-air life’ - at Volda University College.
Skog is uniquely accomplished: she is the only woman in the world to have successfully climbed the highest peaks on each continent and skied to both the North and South Poles. She has traversed Greenland five times.
In addition to undertaking global expeditions, Cecilie writes books and gives lectures on her extraordinary experiences.
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All views and opinions expressed by guests on the podcast are entirely their own and do not represent those of The Sunderland Collection or Whistledown Productions.
