Hey everyone! Long story short, and brutally honest. You might have noticed there haven't been any updates about the NPL project for the past 2 weeks. It's hard to admit that, but we partly fucked it up. After a very "funny" crossing of beloved wild Femundsmarka on day 28, a few totally unexpected events forced us to rethink, and after only 1130 km temporary pause, but NOT END the 2025 NPL project.

And it took us some time to come up with a new plan for the next 2 months. First of all, we had to accept that a change in the ideal NPL plan was inevitable. Out of the blue, so suddenly, in the middle of the otherwise greatly started project. That sucks a lot. But we needed to let a stupid leg injury heal up (you'll find the details in the article), and also sort out some "personal life" matters that have suddenly occurred. These events also totally affected our "after NPL" work plan. It means 2 paid media projects, which must absolutely be finished, latest by the end of September, and we planned to work on them in the last 2 weeks of September after the NPL wilderness run. But we were not fast enough.

Unfortunately, we started the NPL run 3 weeks later than planned (details in the article), so there was big time pressure right from the start of the 3000 km run. We needed to be very fast. We could not afford many delays or slower progress for several reasons. But they happened. Mainly because of the detailed social media creation and sharing, which took me many hours every day, instead of running, mainly during the first weeks of the run. And another reason is the cool but slow, hardcore, 100% clean off-road style of our run. And then came the small, but unpleasant injury, which needed some days of not running at all. And even if we could theoretically restart the run again now after the healing and finished work, the terrible weather and early snow of summer 2025 made the original cleanest plan simply impossible in 2025.

For climbing the rest of the selected iconic mountains in northern Norway and doing NPL the hardest and cleanest possible way, as we did right from the start, you need absolutely dry rocks and snow-free glaciers in several parts of Northern Norway. And the snow already lies in the highest mountains, and there definitely will be more snow before I would get there in the remaining 6 weeks I would need for that. For this, we simply started too late in the season.

Incredibly bitter pill to swallow, to say it mildly, especially because we did such a good and hard job during the first month. But continuing in anything other than this cleanest style is unacceptable in this particular project. I would rather return next year and do it again in one full go.

But that is life sometimes. And all bad is ALWAYS very good for something. Now we're already some time back in northern Norway, taking care of everything, leg is healed, training and running again, and not just mountains this time. Why? In a few weeks, we'll be setting out on a new and hopefully even longer journey again. This time in the opposite direction, south from the fabled Nordkapp. What comes next? Something I could have never imagined, something totally out of my comfort zone.

We deeply want to thank everyone who anyhow helped us or cheered us on this summer NPL run. We also honestly apologize for the 2-week silence here, even though we communicated everything on Strava regularly. We needed to turn off all the notifications and focus only on the work without distractions. And on getting new NPL energy. We definitely don't give up at all, a huge autumn adventure is in the making! Soon "on the road" again... It's gonna be most probably much more brutal than this summer run for me. A total step into the unknown area, probably a very painful experiment. And in fact, this wilderness run was from the start planned to be "just" a monster 3000 km training for it anyway. So partly it was successful training anyway. For what? You'll find out more in the new detailed article below.

Ok, here is detailed decription of what has happened and what are our new plans...

WHY WE STARTED THE NEW 2025 NPL RUN

For several years, my big dream was to be the first person ever to cross Norway in a clean style.

It means totally without using any asphalt roads (all NPL hikers/runners use very long stretches on asphalt in the hard parts of Norway) and without any exits to Sweden or Finland. Most NPL hikers leave Norway to avoid the wild terrains in the hardest parts of Norway. They simply skip vast areas without any trails, full of glaciers, inaccessible rocky valleys, steep, huge rock walls, etc.. Details in the RULES & ETHICS 2025

It took me several years and 3 attempts, and an enormous effort, but in October 2022, I successfully finished the first-ever crossing of Norway in this clean wilderness style. More info in the BLOG 2022

My heart was full, my soul was calm, my big, hard dream was done ;-) Honestly, I never thought I would do it ever again, even though my mind returned to many parts of this incredible wild 2022 journey many, many times over the last years.

It all changed when I met Stina last autumn.

After a few months, she told me that it was a pity not to do more with this incredible NPL adventure, and with over 300 hours of raw, authentic footage I collected on my NPL expeditions.

I jokingly replied: "We would have to run it again. Again, to make this incredible adventure known and to raise some awareness and also resources for making a big documentary movie about NPL, to make this incredible route famous worldwide."

Stina replied... "OK, why not?"

I said: "Because it is extremely mentally and physically hard in this clean style. Because it is very long, and because it is not possible to do it without equally dedicated support."

Stina replied: "OK, let's do it...!".

I shortly stopped breathing and told myself: "Damn..."

And the rest is history...

PREPARATIONS + EXTRA CHALLENGE

I absolutely did not expect it, but it took me a very short time to get psyched for it again. All the plans and projects for winter and spring 2025 were quickly changed. I totally killed my skiing season, and in February, I started running (I am not a very active runner; 2024 was not my running year at all, except for August and September a bit) to be a lot better prepared for the challenge than in 2022.

Also, to make the challenge bigger, I decided that I will take the wilderness run from south to north as brutal training, and if I feel OK, I will also try to run from Nordkapp south, on the "hated" roads, just to see how it compares and feels.

Two absolutely opposite styles, without any experience with running long distances on asphalt. I kept this crazy idea of trying 2 NPL runs in one year just for us and our sponsors. What is funny, even though I really, honestly do not like asphalt, I must admit that somehow this potential road run south became bigger and maybe even a more important challenge for me than the wilderness run...

That wilderness run is undoubtedly hundreds of times cooler, nicer, wilder, and harder than a dumb road run on E6 highway. But asphalt running across Norway sounds like brutal mental suffering and a crazy thing, and somehow that's what made me very curious about it... But we get to this more at the end of this long article.

LATE START

The plan was to start running ideally around June 20th, 2025. But, as always, loads of preparations, job/work, and effort to get all the necessary gear, equipment, ideal car, etc., took longer than expected, and I started the run on July 14th, 2025. This means very late in the season!!! So the whole project had been under a lot of time pressure from day one. 

Despite that, I was very optimistic, because I felt strong, I knew the route, and hoped for OK weather and the so much needed luck you need for such a project. 

SLOWER PROGRESS BUT PERFECT STYLE

I felt very OK and strong most of the days. But one thing was enormously slowing us down right from the start. Creating daily videos and content for social media. The biggest killer of similar projects, where speed and time are essential. But I wanted to do it, without it, it is really hard or straight impossible to raise awareness about such a cool but at the same time niche thing like NPL.

Despite that, we were able to continue in great style. But many days were very short due to spending 3-7 hours video editing. But we made very good progress, in absolutely perfect style. I skipped many of the 2022 asphalt road crossings by swimming, using boats, running under bridges, etc. I made several parts of the future NPL trail much cleaner and nicer. I managed to find a more attractive path and avoided at least 50 km of forest or mountain gravel roads. That was one of the main goals of this 2025 NPL run. To reshape a few parts of the NPL trail before setting up the final version and promoting it. Most of the changes were planned to be done in the first, more civilised 1000 km of the trail. And we did it. 

Also, before the run, I preselected 12 iconic Norwegian mountains. And even despite sometimes extreme weather, I was healthy and managed to get to the summit of each of them, until we were forced to interrupt the project. Seven out of seven possible NPL mountains were done; five more were waiting in northern Norway.

WHY THINGS CHANGED

I will not describe here the whole first hard but amazing NPL expedition month. I will focus just on the last 5 days. The rest of the trip, you can watch many videos and stories on our dedicated INSTAGRAM account named @norgepalangstrail

So now I skip to the last 5 days, which forced us to stop and rethink plans...

LAST 5 DAYS OF NPL 2025

DAY 24 - Otnes - Femundsundet, 47,20km + 2031 m

Yesterday was a very long day with 2 rubber boat crossings of 2 big rivers in 2 valleys. So I started relatively late, but I felt so strong that I knew I would do it today. What? My super impressive summit nr 6 today - Midtre Sølen. The day went smoothly. A lot of real running, some long, swampy, and rocky sections, but at 18:30, I met with Stina and Čenda by the Skardstjønna lake in the Sølen massif. We went to the top together. Totally insane views over huge parts of Norway. Late walking down, after the sunset. Cool moon. Still 15 km to the car. After a while of going down, I felt that the muscles above the ankle, going around the right shin, started to hurt a bit and gradually were getting a bit more painful. I was a bit worried about how it would be tomorrow, but I didn't give it much attention, nothing serious, I thought, and went to bed. Another epic day on the trail...

DAY 25 - Femundsundet - Femundsenden, 21,25km + 444 m

Woke up and I immediately knew things were not the best. I had quite a stiff right leg. Not just the muscles around the shin, but also the whole instep bones just behind the toes were absolutely stiff and painful if I moved my toes. This instep pain I had already several days, and it wasn't a big problem while walking/running. But today it was a lot worse. I was a bit bitter about it, given how well I otherwise felt physically, in terms of energy and power. So instead of an early start into a totally fast runnable section, I edited for long hours a long video for social media from the previous day. And started very late. The original plan was to run all the way to Elgå today. Over 60 km, as the terrain is very flat and very easy to run, compared to the previous sections. But due to the leg and foot, I was forced to do only 22 km from Femundsundet over beautiful Vardefjell mountain to my beloved lake Femunden. That really sucked, as we were totally tight on the time schedule already.

DAY 26 - Femundsenden - Elgå, 39,04 km + 634 m

Similar situation to the previous day. Beautiful morning by Sorksjøen. Very heavy long discussion with Stina about what to do and how the hell did we allow such a late start of this project, which created such a time pressure... My leg felt very stiff, both the bones in the instep and the shin muscles. I started running late again as I tried to give it some time to rest more. I could run, but slowly and again only through the pain. No problem here, it was mainly easy terrain, but you must always think ahead in such a project. I visited friends at Femund Canoe Camp. Here, my love for Norwegian outdoors started long years ago...

From the FCC, I started carefully running towards Stenvika, a nice bay in the southern part of the lake Femund, and continued on the shore towards Elgå. Still, very runnable terrain most of the time. All the time I had in my head, that I really want and need to run the whole Femundsmarka the next day, all the way from Elgå to distant Vauldalen. It means way over 70 km in quite rough terrain in over half of the distance. But my leg was telling me that it was not the best idea. But I ignored it. Femundsmarka is my beloved part of Norway, the forecast was very good, and I felt so good and strong. Just the leg... I really didn't know if to trust it or not.

It was hurting a lot, but the good thing was that it wasn't getting worse today. So at the end of the day, I even tried to run on it fast for a few km. Around 5min/km, which is not fast normally, but here it was 2x faster than a pace I would call fast on this wilderness trip. And... The leg was quite Ok = didn't hurt more when running. I felt super light running even uphill, so after reaching the magical village of Elgå, I definitely decided that I would do Femundsmarka in one go the next day. 

We really needed to get much faster, to have a chance to stick to the already very tight NPL/work schedule. My plan was to run/hike/progress from today every day at least 50 km to get out of the time pressure. I was absolutely dedicated to sticking to this plan, even if I should stop creating those videos for social media so often.

DAY 27 - Elgå - Store Svuku - Muggsjølia, 47,86km + 1355 m

We managed to get up early, and despite short sleep, I felt really amazing. Strong, fresh, feeling light and powerful in my body. Before going to bed, I treated my leg for half an hour using a strong Thai healing cream. The stiffness in my shin muscles and instep bones had improved. Honestly, if I weren't in the middle of a massive multi-month run across the wilderness, I wouldn’t have paid much attention to these pains. In a few days, it would likely be fine — but that wasn’t the case here.  Crossing wild Femundsmarka in one go means covering over 72–74 km in often slow, challenging terrains. A big, hard day even in perfect health. 

But it was a sunny, warm morning, with my favorite place in Scandinavia ahead of me. I felt amazing and had great company up to the NPL mountain number 7 — Store Svuku. Stina and Čenda decided to join me. Fueled by all that positivity, I made the call to go light and fast: no sleeping bag, just food for one day, shorts, a T-shirt, and a wind jacket. Nothing else. That meant I had to finish the entire section in one day!

We started from Elgå quite early and headed to Gråvola - an emotional mountain for me. It was here that I first saw the real Norwegian wilderness many years ago, during my first hitchhiking trip to Norway. That’s when my absolute love, passion, and addiction for this lifestyle truly began. Back then, we walked across Femundsmarka over 7 days. It changed my life. Today, I planned to run it in just one day, and I felt very confident.

After Svukuriset, we began climbing Store Svuku - a sacred mountain for the Sámi people. I felt strong, the pain was surprisingly minimal, and my energy was high. At the top, after 15 km, we reached a fantastic viewpoint. We took photos, filmed videos, and enjoyed the view for about 20 minutes. The wind was cold but bearable.

Stina and Čenda started walking back to the car and had to drive almost 200 km through Røros to Vauldalen - my planned endpoint for the day. Life felt really great at that moment. I was so confident I could maintain a 50 km/day average pace, as I’d felt strong for several days in a row. The only things slowing me down lately are my leg and the time spent on filming for social media. We can fix both...

Unfortunately, my leg got cold and stiff in the wind at the summit, and I felt more pain again as I descended into the heart of Femundsmarka. Still, it was manageable, and I hoped it would loosen up as I kept moving. I stopped at Oasen - a beloved and also somewhat fatal place for me - a group of trees around a lake on the vast plateau. It's a gem for autumn photoshoots. I spent about 20 minutes there, feeling confident I had enough strength to run through the whole afternoon and evening.

That was the plan: run as much as possible, especially with more than 50 km still to go. The section after Oasen was long and rocky, but after weeks out here running across Norwegian wilderness, my balance on technical terrain is insanely good. I was fast.

But then...

Behind the amazing lakes of Røvoltjønna, the leg started hurting more and more. Damn. I still hoped it would be somehow okay. As always on this trip. But not this time...

After about 27 km, it got serious. I dipped my leg into the cold waters of the magical Røa river for about 15 minutes. Huge relief - but only temporary. I was still running on it, over rocks and stones, praying that the muscles would loosen again. But they didn’t.

Damn, I really needed to be fast. I had limited food and no extra clothes or a sleeping bag. Out here, every kilometer feels at least like two on the road. The terrain is tricky - marshlands or stones - not that very hard, but tough. With a healthy leg, I could have run most of it. Slowly, but still much faster than just walking - which is what I desperately needed. Not just today, but all the next days and weeks. Speeding up is the only way to finish latest by September 20.

I really tried to run. But deep inside, I soon knew it... If I pushed all the way to Vauldalen today, I would seriously damage the muscle and wouldn’t be able to continue for days. Huge, painful dilemma for many hours. I knew there was an open cabin around kilometer 46–47. I could stop there. But... after two short previous days, that felt like a big failure. Before the cabin, the trail was flat and sandy - totally runnable. I tried to run, or at least hike fast. But it was obvious, even if I didn’t want to admit it: I had to stop here and give the shin muscles and instep bones in my right leg some rest. Both were totally hard, stiff, super painful, and almost numb to the touch. That really wasn't good... So, despite it being only 18:30, and with just 27 km of partly runnable and partly hard terrain ahead, I very sadly decided to stop at Muggsjølia.

It really sucked. Why do I have to stop here? Dammit! I need to be much faster on this long NPL journey. This 3,000 km run across the wilderness is just the first part of the whole project! Huge frustration in the middle of totally amazing, beloved Femundsmarka. I’m in good shape — just not a few small parts of my right leg... :-(

I was thinking a lot about how to continue and speed up this project. There’s the filming and sharing on social media - another pain. The editing takes so much time and energy. But it’s part of the game. Okay… let’s try to stay positive.

Besides this mental battle, it was otherwise an amazing evening in a special old place. I didn’t have much food - no proper dinner after a long day, just the remaining nuts. I had to save the two remaining sandwiches from Stina for the morning. But that didn’t worry me much. I hoped to move faster the next day.

I didn’t have clothes or a sleeping bag, so I made a big fire in the cabin and went to bed, planning to start at 5 a.m. I spent over an hour massaging both painful parts of my right leg, hoping they'd be okay by morning. I needed not only to reach the car but also to resupply there and continue with my tent, since the weather forecast for the next week looked really, really bad, and the next stage I needed to do ideally in dry weather due to rock climbing.

DAY 28 - Muggsjølia - Vauldalen, 26,31km + 866 m

ALL THE BAD IS GOOD FOR SOMETHING...

So instead of limping until late at night through the harsh mountains of northern Femundsmarka, I spent a totally peaceful evening and night in this absolutely magical old Muggsjølia cabin. I had already passed through here during my 2021 and 2022 NPL runs, and both times, I sadly thought how amazing it would be to stay here. But I didn’t. This time I was forced to. Did I attract it last time? Who knows...

After a very warm night - despite being without any sleeping bag or duvet - I woke before 5 am. The old dark cabin was still warm, and I immediately touched my hurt instep and shin. It was very stiff. The instep bones hurt a lot, but that’s not a problem -I could still walk or even slowly run with that. But the shin muscle was totally dead.

I started walking, and every step was very sharp pain. I have a very high pain tolerance from my long martial arts past, but this wasn’t pleasant at all. Still, pain is just pain - I would run through it anyway if I knew it wouldn’t totally destroy further progress. But I knew it would... Every step had two very painful points or phases. So I realized very soon that I’d be happy just to reach the car today, and I had to forget about continuing further into the next, technically harder, and totally pathless NPL section.

It was a beautiful foggy morning. I had only two small pieces of bread, since I had planned to run Femundsmarka in just one day yesterday, not in two days. Normally, that wouldn’t be a problem - if I were faster today. But no chance. Behind Muggsjølia, there were some wooden planks over the swamps and several runnable kilometers. But on the flat planks, it was even worse. The only steps that hurt less were uphill. I passed Ljøsnsavollen and walked slowly and without food toward the highest mountain of Femundsmarka, Storviglen.

At the saddle, I didn’t continue on the rocky marked trail that enters Sweden. My strictly clean style of crossing Norway means I avoid asphalt and also Sweden or Finland completely. Here, this is the first place of this later ultra-hard "staying in Norway" game... So I was very slowly walking on the side of the rocky Tverrviglen mountain, and then started to descend toward lake Storhåen. Going down was the worst for the shin, but I numbly kept moving.

Lower in the valley, there were bushes and swamps. Perfect for my dead leg 😀. Crossing a wide, strong river flowing out of the lake - basically on one leg without poles - was “fun.” I can’t believe the current didn’t take me. Still, the cold water gave a few minutes of relief. What was left was about 8 km through swamps to Vauldalen. A perfect clean crossing without entering Sweden. 

I reached the car and Stina. It was really nice to see her, and the mood was still OK. My leg was dead - numb, hard to even stand on. No wonder after doing about 150 painful km over the last four days. But I did all I could...

NEXT SECTION QUICKLY - IMPOSSIBLE

The next almost 50 km NPL section from Vauldalen to the big lake Nesjøen is one of the really tough ones. Basically, no trail except the first few km of a wet ATV path through the mud and swamps. After that, pure off-trail with steep climbing on slippery, loose rocks and slabs to avoid entering Sweden. Last time I did it in one day, but I arrived at the lake late at night, exhausted even on two very healthy legs.

In the car, I checked the weather forecast and got a little shock... Absolutely shitty, seriously stormy, rainy weather in all of central and northern Norway. Here, north wind up to 30 m/s straight to the face, heavy multi-day snowing in my selected mountains, and very bad conditions for all the next 10 days. Completely impossible to limp through such hard terrain in such weather with a half-dead leg.

On Glittertind, the second-highest mountain in Norway, about a week ago, I faced similar weather - but there I was fit and strong and FAST. And even then, it was hard. Damned leg...

ASPHALT CHALLENGE

What pisses me off most is that I know it’s nothing serious. It is not really an injury... It’s “only” a totally overloaded leg, nothing really bad. But it needs at least 4–6 days of absolute rest. And then a few days of a bit easier pace. Damn! But that’s a deal breaker after already losing so many long days earlier due to editing. I must finish this NPL run ideally on September 15th, latest by September 20th. I have two very important paid projects with deadlines at the end of September. And after that, the second part of our bigger NPL 2025 project is planned to start. 

What? Second part? What is it?

Something outside my comfort zone. Something I don’t even like to be honest. But it’s been a huge question mark in my head for years. Running from Nordkapp back south to Lindesnes... on the road.

Asphalt running. Something I really hate. Something I would normally never do and have always considered stupid. Total opposite of my NPL wilderness run. But at the same time, it’s a huge sporting challenge. I want to know how my slow, hard, wilderness NPL style transfers into speed - if I put the same energy into “stupid” but fast roads.

Because on the roads you don’t need to:

• Carry a heavy backpack (in the wilderness, I often had 10+ kg, sometimes up to 15 kg).

• Navigate (on the roads, you just run straight).

• Worry about food, water, or dry clothes - you can get them anytime.

• Carry a tent or stop at exact meeting points.

• On the road, the same energy makes you much faster - sometimes more than 5x faster. You can run whenever you still have some power, or until pain allows.

MONSTER TRAINING DONE ONLY PARTLY - IS IT ENOUGH?

Since the moment we decided to do NPL this year, I have always taken this 2025 wilderness version of Norge på langs as “monster training” for this insane southbound road run. I wanted to test how much I could do on the road.

In 2022, after 2,963 brutal wilderness kilometers, I was tough as hell. Iron knees and ankles, and maybe not great speed, but fantastic endurance. Asphalt or gravel is fast and easy compared to that. But road running has its own trap: no matter how good your engine is, it depends on how strong or asphalt-adapted your joints and tendons are. Can mine handle the endless monotonous steps, always hard surface, always at the same angle? I have no clue. I’ve never even run a marathon on asphalt...

I was curious how far I could run in one month. Or at least before a fatigue or injury stops me...  Hopefully all the way?

HARD DECISION TIME IN VAULDALEN

I already did this clean wilderness route in 2022. I dedicated years to be able to do it one day. I wanted to be the first person to ever do it. And I succeeded. It was brutal, it was mental, and I gave it my everything. With the help of my amazing friend Radka Minksová as support, we left our souls and bodies out there.

I must be honest. That enormous motivation and absolute fighting spirit weren’t fully present this time. I somehow felt it from the start. It was still very good, but not the same absolute animal level of focus. The main reason was that there simply was not the same team spirit here as in 2022, which partly also caused the late start. Honestly, that was not what I expected. Another very heavy talk with Stina about what to do next to save the project.

Some unexpected bad news that we do not want to mention here arrived a few hours later. Damn... so many hits on the same day. What is life trying to teach me in this lesson?? To slow down sometimes? To learn not to push things that do not naturally flow? Learning the art of not giving a fuck what others will say? I don't know... maybe everything?

Also... I must honestly admit that the curiosity "what is out there behind the next mountain or lake " was a bit missing during this run. As I know the path now perfectly, and most of the 1130 km I have already run for the third time. Crazy deja vu. I often felt like I was filming the same words, the same shots of the same situations in the same places, again and again, like all the years before.

We have already filmed an amazing film story from 2022. Now in 2025, I just wanted to go faster and to adjust a few trail parts to make it wilder. Ninety percent of these changes were already done further south. Only one part near Skorovatn was left, and I can still do it later.

Here in Vauldalen, I suddenly realized that, thanks to my foot that needs time to heal, and thanks to other subjective reasons mentioned above, I had zero chance to finish this wilderness NPL in September. That was very brutal... From a perfect positive mood and power at the start of the previous beautiful day to seeing any reasonable thing to do rather than quitting.

I did only about 1,130 km out of ~3,000. But those 1,130 km were done in the best possible style, with almost no asphalt crossings, and I made several sections much harder and nicer. Even though not everything was perfect, I’m very proud of what Stina and I did anyway. Everything was new for her, and she did an amazing job anyway. That is how I see it, despite several mistakes we made already before the run. Despite the early ending, it was for sure one of the few toughest, wildest runs ever done in Norway. And a fantastic school.

It was really tough and absolutely beautiful, 1130 km. But the original "2 complete NPL in one year" plan is impossible this year. 

And the more I now value our NPL 2022 achievement. Brutal mindset and devotion back then... Damn...

WHY NOT SIMPLY CONTINUE LATER?

Waiting for the foot to heal would mean losing too much empty time. I also considered doing my paid work now while healing. But that would mean traveling 2,700 km extra to our computers in northern Norway and then back, and then it would almost certainly be impossible to finish NPL cleanly. 

Why?

Because it’s already snowing heavily in some places now. In 2022, I was incredibly lucky - dry weather, no snow until October. But now? Impossible. Some steep slabs in the wildest parts need to be dry; it is clean, steep rock. In winter style, those sections would be absolutely blocked until June or July next year.

Despite knowing the bitter truth, we spent three heartbreaking days in Vauldalen before we dared to leave. The heart didn’t want to give up, but the brain knew it was fu*ked. On day 3, the leg was a bit better - I could maybe go very slowly with poles? No... not in such extreme weather. Logic told us to change the plan.

It feels stupid and very bitter even now, many days later, back in northern Norway. But that’s life, too.

CHANGE - IS IT REALISTIC?

Honestly, now 2 weeks later after Vauldalen, I don’t regret so much that I missed the wild places in the north, even though I was looking forward to this challenge a lot. We live mainly in northern Norway and have already visited many of the NPL  trail sections since 2022. I can go back anytime to any of them.

What I regret is the enormous effort put into the preparations and into the first 4 weeks, and for "nothing". And also, I hate giving up. But this time it makes sense. So we must think positively - turn the pain into new motivation. Our project continues. Just differently. We are trying to figure out all the next steps in our further common journey. And for this the best answer is the new journey now.

We are home in Lyngen now to finish the promised work that was supposed to be done after NPL. Heal the foot properly. Refocus. Train at least a bit on asphalt. 

As soon as that work is done, we’ll go to Nordkapp, and I'll start running south. We’ll see how far or fast it goes. How much does 50 km in wild mountains without trails transform into the distance on the road? Maybe it will be easier than the wilderness. But I don't think so... Maybe we get far, maybe we stop after just some days due to my totally dead joints. Totally honestly, I have no clue. But I want to find out.  Shin muscles are many days perfectly healed now, but the instep is still quite numb, as I still run on it again here in Lyngen, and it isn't getting much better for some reason. It's no problem here, but it can be big trying to run an ultramarathon every day again.

But this question must be answered. How far I could run on the road using the same energy, and in the wilderness without trails.

Maybe we won't succeed again, and I will look like a complete idiot... That's the risk, and I am afraid of it a bit. At the same time, if we give it our very best this time, I will be OK with whatever result. Let's find out soon...

KORUNA LIPTOVA - SLOVAK TRAIL ENDING?

And no matter how this asphalt adventure ends, maybe in days, maybe in weeks, we really want to do a smaller 470 km "feel good" October trail run across the most beautiful autumn mountains of Slovakia. A project I filmed and organized in 2019 with 2 strong runners. Something in my beloved mountains around the magical Liptov region... Something for our souls, no asphalt, just trails and fantastic nature, and that old Slovak atmosphere... So... 

So, that's our story so far...

Life is still good... Don't be afraid to fail. Be rather very afraid not to even try...