NPL 2025 IDEA
"Norge på langs" means "The length of Norway". It's a legendary adventure and a dream of every active Norwegian. However, just a few people ever dared to fulfill it. There are only 2 general rules. To get from Lindesnes lighthouse in the south of Norway to the northernmost point of the country, fabled Nordkapp, using only your own power. And you have to stay all the time in Norway. It doesn't matter which way you choose. Whether you walk on the road or follow mountain trails, go by bike or sea kayak, that's completely up to you. On foot it usually takes from 4 up to 6 months. Until summer 2022 only two people have run it. The runners ran on the asphalt roads full of cars, nonstop supported by their teams, and they took the shortest possible way, which was about 2550 km. Great sport achievement, but our aims and "perception of an adventure" are totally different.
In July 2022 filmmaker Petr decided to do the first wilderness run and at the same time the historically first clean crossing of Norway ever. Clean means without using asphalt roads at all. Supported by small dedicated team, he ran alone. His goal was to find and establish the most beautiful natural path across Norway. He ran 3000 km through cold unknown mountains, gruelling wetlands with billions of mosquitoes, across the never ending subarctic plateaus. Very often in pure pathless wilderness far from civilization. He also climbed 10 iconic Norwegian mountains. Every day he spent 3 - 7 hours by filming his journey, which slowed down the speed of the run significantly. After 72 running days spent in Norwegian wilderness Petr has reached Nordkapp in a clean style with less than 1 km of his journey spent on asphalt. The future official NPL trail was born.
In June 2025 we will set off the 3000 km journey again. Our goal now is to establish the final version of clean NPL trail and promote it as the hardest and most beautiful long distance trail in Europe. It's going to be another life changing experience. Join the story...
TASTE THE NPL ATMOSPHERE
Watch a short documentary film about Petr's NPL vision and also about preparations for the historically first clean wilderness run across Norway in 2022. This film even todays greatly describes the whole NPL idea and our story.
NPL 2025 TEAM
GOALS AND MESSAGE OF THE PROJECT
There are 3 main goals of the 2025 project
1) Establishing benchmark long distance wilderness trail across Norway + setting FKT
In October 2022 Petr finished the historically first clean crossing of Norway without using asphalt roads. The new 2963 km long clean wilderness trail across Norway was born. The main focus was not on speed, but more on the beauty and purity of the new trail and mainly on filming loads of authentic daily materials for upcoming film and film series.
We are mainly filmmakers, so capturing the story of our journey in raw, authentic way during the 2022 run was our an absolute priority! Much bigger than just running NPL itself. Our cameras and drones captured even the most difficult situations and crisis. We filmed everywhere, every day, several months in a row. This is our strength. The filming and took 3 - 7 hours daily and slowed down the run enormously. But this hard part of the whole NPL project is done!
In summer 2025 Petr will stand in Lindesnes at the start of this 3000 km journey again. The goal of this new project is to re-shape a few parts of the trail to make it even wilder. For implementing such changes, the whole trail must be run again in one try! Another goal is to focus on speed and setting up "FKT" (Fastest Known Time) and giving this "polished" final trail challenge to the international running and thru-hiking communities. Filming will be part of the project as well, but in more limited way, mainly focussed on the new parts and the most interesting moments on the go. Not on mapping the route in details - this was done already in 2022.
We believe that this will become the hardest and the most beautiful long distance trail in Europe. We know that a strong film can turn "Norge på langs trail" into a new "trail legend" like for example world-famous PCT - Pacific Crest Trail in the USA. Just nicer and much harder.
2) Creating awareness of NPL project + innovative daily reports
During the preparations for this project, we will start to strongly communicate our idea. Historically first clean run in great style is done, the hardest filming is also done - this is very strong thing. And now it is finally time to start telling the world about it! We will use our 2025 NPL run as a perfect tool to communicate the whole NPL idea to different target groups and to general public.
We will contact different media, destination companies, podcasts etc, both in and outside of Norway.
We will start building new strong NPL social media channels. It is not an easy task in 2025, we know, but we have great materials, we are filmmakers with many skills, we will also share many details from the training and preparations.
Running the length of Norway in a clean style is super tough challenge itself, even without filming. On such trip, you are tired already after the first week. As mentioned above, in summer 2025, we will focus mainly on speed of the run rather than filming everything. This time, we will put much bigger focus on sophisticated daily reports directly from the run itself.
Several months before the run we will work on developing the most effective, yet high-level way of storytelling for social and other media. Become part of the NPL story with us!
3) Raising budget for world class adventure film & film series and complex website about NPL
During the whole 6 years dedicated to the NPL project, we have collected close to 350 hours of film great footage. This is enormous amout of interesting moments must be turned into a feature length documentary movie and also film series. This requires at least 6 months of every day hardcore editing and other postproduction. To be able to do so, we need to raise sufficient budget to bring the whole NPL story to life.
Read more about our MEDIA OUTPUT
The 2025 run will promote the whole project to get support for production of all of the media outputs necessary for putting the NPL trail on the world map.
4) To do something for "greater good"
It's not only the journey of the body but mainly the "journey of the mind." And this is what matters most in this crazy world we live in the last years. In our preparations, daily reports during the run and especially in the movie we want to talk about meaningful values, healthier life routines, focus, self-discipline etc. We are open to even much bigger ideas in this field. Let's talk...
ROUTE
July - August 2025
The trail from 2022 is 2963 km long with +101 443 meters of vertical gain. It's incredibly rich on all types of nordic landscapes as it leads across the most important mountain ranges and plateaus and includes the highest peaks and wildest pathless places of the whole Scandinavia. Simply said, it connects the interesting and various parts of Norway into a logical clean stunning trail.
Clean means "to stay off the asphalt roads" right from the very start. Ideally you just cross them on your way north! This makes it extremely challenging in several parts of Norway! Petr managed to stay on asphalt for less than 1 km during his 76 asphalt road crossings.
For crossing big lakes, sea straights or major Norwegian rivers we will use small inflatable boat. We will again climb at least 10 iconic Norwegian mountains, including the highest mountains of southern and northern Norway.
We will stay all the time only in Norway, unlike the majority of NPL hikers, who skip the technically hardest remote parts of Norway by escaping into easier marked terrains in Sweden and Finland.
Please learn details about our RULES AND ETHICS
The goal is to run at least 50 km per day = maximum 60 days
However... It sounds nice on the paper, but reality it is sometimes much more difficult. We are in Scandinavia, far in the north. Our route often leads through vast wilderness without any paths. In some parts Petr must find a way through the labyrinths of steep rock walls, thick forests, deep fjords, glaciers, wild rivers, wetlands etc. In the hardest parts, it is succes if you "run" 1 km per hour, no matter how strong you are. On good trails in some famous national parks like Hardangervidda, Petr did up to 90 km in one day.
Each part of this route is generally very physically demanding. And then there are 2 extremely difficult parts, which we call "Mysterious southern jungle" and "Norwegian Yosemite". In these 2 parts, all other NPL thru-hikers always walk or bike long parts on the asphalt roads, use the ferry boats or go through Sweden in much milder terrain.
We will always go through Nature and always stay only on Norwegian soil.
Click here for all the interesting details about the ROUTE AND STRATEGY
View from the summit Okssolten, the highest mountain of northern Norway, during the NPL 2022 run.
WHY IS OUR PROJECT "DIFFERENT"?
This multimedia project has many interesting aspects. Sports, adventurous, entertaining, motivational and also commercial.
1) Historically first clean off/trail run across the most beautiful country in the world
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no asphalt roads
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we stay only in Norway
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establishing new trail across whole Norway
2) 100% authenticity
We think big and YES, we know we are stepping on thin ice. Everything we claim we can also prove - read our RULES AND ETHICS
3) Variety of activities
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Climbing 10 iconic Norwegian mountains - Petr will climb again to Hårteigen, Kyrkja, Galdhøpiggen, Glittertind, Midtre Sølen, Store Svuku, Skjækerhatten, Okssolten, Gasskatjåhkkå and Halti. And countless number of less known mountains along the way.
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Blåmannsissen glacier traverse - the only way how to get from Sulitjelma to Narvikfjellet with "dry feet" and not using the main E6 road or easier terrain in Sweden. Most dangerous and extremely remote and wild 200 km of the whole trip.
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Sea and river crossings - the runner will skip all the asphalt bridges across the major Norwegian rivers. He will swim, wade them or use small boat. He will also skip Nordkapptunnelen, the 7 km long undersea asphalt tunnel which ALL NPL hikers use to get Magerøya island, where lies mysterious Nordkapp, the final destination of our journey.
4) Daily reports from the run
Both runner Petr and Stina in the support team will share visually attractive daily reports on several types of social media and also here, on this dedicated website, where it will "stay forever". Photos, short smart video stories, sometimes livestream from the run and of course backstage point of view. Every day we will also post facts about the current area, daily maps, statistics, equipment etc.
We won't publish just a few simple Instagram-stories, but hopefully interesting level of newscast straight from the action.
5) Motivation and going for dreams
"Hardest run across Norway... Detailed daily reports... World-class film, succesful film series and a cool book... Wow... "
It all probably sounds like a total SCI-FI, naivity or at least total lack of self-consciousness. Right?
It would be a very hard work even for a big film teams, and not for just 2 people with small budget. Yes, normally yes! It will be brutal and we are fully avare of it. But...
We already did it in 2022!
We have worked 3 years now on perfecting every aspect of the whole process. It is Petr's life project, where he can use all the skills he got during his 17 years of professional outdoor sports filmmaking. Read about our filming strategy HERE