… I grew up in Vardø, a small fishing town on Norway’s extreme northeast coast. My life was shaped from an early age by my huskies and what we Norwegians call “Friluftsliv”.
Vardø is the only place on mainland Europe in an arctic climate zone. The harsh climate and the many storms make us feel very close and connected to nature. I spent most of my youth on the wide plains of the Varanger Peninsula or on countless fishing trips with my father on the Barents Sea.
Even as a teenager I had my own dog team with 12 dogs and thus my own means of transport for the longest season, winter. So I went to school and later to work by dog sled.
I studied nature and wilderness management at the university in Hedmark and am a trained agronomist. I attended a one-year course in dog sledding at the Malangen adult education center.
Near the Arctic city of Tromsø, where I worked as a dog sled driver, I met Jan!
… from a young age I was attracted to the north and nature and travelled around northern Scandinavia on foot, by canoe and kayak.
I grew up in a small southern German town, right on the Rhine near the Swiss border. Even then I was fascinated by the sled dog races in the Black Forest.
My interest in Scandinavia grew even more through my community service, which I completed in a facility for disabled people near Trondheim. Before I completely succumbed to my “longing for the north”, however, I trained as a chef in Berlin. Three years later I left the Michelin-starred restaurant Facil for northern Norway as a “gardemanger”.
I came to the Bardu district on a hike and rediscovered my interest in sled dogs. Then I had the opportunity to work as a chef in Spitsbergen for a year and I took it. After that I worked as a head chef in a small restaurant in Tromsø. I then started working as a dog sled driver and guide not far from there.
Here I met Ane and her fantastic dogs!
We soon decided to live together and now we share our love for nature and our animals.
We have been running the Huskylodge/Ursa Minor Adventures AS since 2008.
… I grew up on the island of Riems, a small, tranquil place on the German Baltic coast.
At the age of 8 I was already an enthusiastic sailor, out on the water in all weathers. Later I shared my home with a hunting dog, a small Münsterländer, who taught me the first lessons in dealing with dogs and completely sparked my love of dogs.
Scandinavia was a frequent and favorite holiday destination, first with my parents, later alone on a bike, in a kayak or with a backpack on my back. Nature with its flora and fauna captivated me from the very beginning and so I tried to get to know as many corners of Sweden and Norway as possible on my vacation trips.
After studying chemistry and successfully completing my doctorate, I interrupted my work as a researcher several times to be able to work outside in nature and with animals. That’s how I came to Ane and Jan as a dog handler in 2018 and 2022.
This place, the most wonderful dogs in the world, the sweetest llamas, a beautiful sailboat – I had to come back and stay.
