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 shares 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
The map Cecilie unfurls with Jerry 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 Alpine scenery characterised by 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 which derives from the Nordic mythological term ‘Jötunheimr’ or ‘the lands inhabited by the jötnar’ (giants).
This comprehensive map, comparable to an Ordnance Survey Landranger map, is packed with essential information for navigation such as contour lines, mountain passes, glacial ridges, and cabin locations. 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 that the area she travels to the most in Jotunhiemen is Hurrungane. The rugged region's environment is marked by extremes, enduring 10-month-long winters, and brief but lush summers occurring between July and August.
Hurrungane holds deep personal significance for Cecilie. Describing it as her ‘backyard’ and a ‘playground’, this area served as her training ground as a glacier guide and mountain climber since she was nineteen.
©Kartverket
The area is so familiar to her that she no longer needs a map, and 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 - just look at the view!
She shares a deeply personal journey, discussing both the ambition and freedom of her career as a professional adventurer, and the profound grief 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 in 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.
As well as her extraordinary global expeditions - including traversing Greenland five times - Cecilie writes books and gives lectures on her experiences, and is an Ambassador for iconic Norwegian technical outdoor clothing and equipment maker, Bergans.
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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.
