Ambassador
Cecilie Skog is one of the world's foremost female adventurers. She is the only person in the world to have climbed the Seven Summits and skied to the South and North Poles. She has crossed Antarctica without supplies, using pure muscle power. Where previous expeditions had used ski sails and dogs, the girl from Sunnmøre had only skis and a sledge. Cecilie has also crossed Greenland five times, and the last time she was pregnant!
Her interest in the outdoors really took off in her teens. The mountains poked holes in the sky and Cecilie wanted to go hiking more and more often. Along with a sense of achievement and curiosity came dreams. About other mountains and glaciers she wanted to get to know.
“My trips don't have to be long and demanding. They are a place to gather my thoughts and find peace. When I'm kayaking or canoeing, hiking in the Sunnmøre Alps, strolling along the beaches of Jær, or when I'm climbing or bouldering with my friends, that's when I thrive.
Among the peaks of Hurrungane with crampons and ice axe. With climbing shoes and chalk bag in a steep wall at Hauktjern. In the forest, just outside the house with children and a dog. In western Norway aboard an Oselver, skiing and sledging across an endless white expanse with the sun barely above the horizon.
Her credentials as a mountaineer and polar explorer are clearly unparalleled, and her love of nature and hiking is one of the pillars of her life. Despite great amounts of joy, she has also experienced tragedy on tour. In 2008, she lost her husband, Rolf Bae, during a climbing expedition on Mount K2 on the border between Pakistan and China.
Cecilie is a trained nurse and originally comes from Ålesund. She has studied outdoor life at Volda University College and has several years of experience as a mountain guide in Norway and abroad. She has also worked as a glacier guide and glacier instructor. In recent years, she has spent as much time as possible with her two daughters, published books and hosted several TV programs.
Since the winter of 2006, the trip to the North Pole has been my strongest and most complex hiking memory. Never, neither before nor since, have I felt more present than on the Arctic Ocean. Under the starry sky, in the polar light with Rolf and PH. In the midst of wrecks, seals and polar bear tracks outside the tent. 50 days on my way across a world in constant motion with 3,000 meter deep sea under my skis.
But now I can suddenly find myself answering the everyday trips. Perhaps even the ones that demand the most and provide the most mastery are the days when the resistance has arisen long before the trip. The days when I've taken a baby girl under each arm, sprinted and managed to knock this triangle of girls over the doorstep and into Østmarka - the trips where everyone has agreed that the pancakes taste best outside.
