Adventures are for everyone. What adventure is for you?

The MiMove-blog met with adventurer Ola Skinnarmo and talked about exciting trips and challenges in life.  He has skied to both the South and the North pole but is also focusing his adventurous side on developing his company.  His company organises adventure trips, also to Spain.  I am an adventurer and I have the best job in the world!  To push myself, mentally as well as physically, is a favourite of mine.  I think I have been to one beach holiday in my entire life and that was when I was ten years old.  My family went to the Canary Islands on a charter trip.  It was fantastic, all children love to swim and play.  But since then, our trips were more challenging.

Adventures in childhood

My mother was the outdoorsy scout type and my dad was from Norway, where they go hiking every day after work.  We cycled and canoed quite a lot in my early years.  I had some adventures from an early age.  It was a natural continuation that I trained as a wilderness guide when I got older.  I was the first Swede ever to ski alone to the South pole.  I was 26 years old at the time.  You get to think a lot when you are on your own for eight weeks.  What do I like, what do I want more of?  I brought 120 kilos of packing, a lot of which was food. I progressed slowly, it was a surreal experience.  The biggest challenge for me, however, was to ski to the North pole. The most important thing, I find it to have the correct focus, during adventures and challenges but also in life. What am I grateful for? It is important to focus on the good things in life.

Custom made adventures

I have written books on my adventures, I do talks and have traveled a lot.  And now I am organising trips for other people wanting to go on adventures.  All our employees are adventurers and although we are not the biggest in the business, our ambition is to be the best.  We are also very flexible.  Should you have your own idea or want to go with a specific group of people we can arrange that.  We have some returning clients, who are perhaps not so keen on real challenges but who still want to experience and see a lot.  And then we organise trips that suit them.  By now, we have a fantastic network of adventurers and guides all around the world that we can call on when we need to.  I met my wife when she was responsible for sponsoring one of my expeditions.  I used to say: That was the best sponsor agreement ever, apart from money for the expedition, I also got a wife!  We have two children, 9 and 13 years old, who are also into adventures.  Not long ago, my youngest came with me to Svalbard.  He got to steer the boat and was really proud.  It was lovely to hear him speak about it in school.  His mates didn’t believe him at first.

Push yourself

Trips don’t have to be challenging.  Most of our trips go to faraway destinations but we do also organise trips to destinations closer to home, like to Spain. You limit yourself if you don’t discover your surroundings!  If you are fortunate to have a place in Spain, don’t just sit there, go out and discover the country.  Spain is a fabulous place to challenge yourself!  Perhaps it sounds like you have to be young and fit to experience nature, but you don’t really. For example, the trips we organise in the Pyrenees focus on experiences and to eat well rather than to challenge the participants physically.

Spain is a beautiful country

Spain is a beautiful country with a lot to offer. If you live there permanently or part-time I really think you should explore the great outdoors.  There are splendid walks, along the coasts but also in the mountains, in the Sierra Nevada and the Pyrenees.  It is always good to train beforehand for you to know that you can walk a full day, but apart from that is the best piece of advice to take lots of water.  Even in spring and autumn, it can get hot when you are walking a whole day out in the open and there is a risk of dehydration.  Previously, we have arranged several different trips to Spain.  They tend to focus on the good life as well as experiencing the stunning landscape.  As we speak, we are planning our next offer in Spain, but we are still in the planning phase, so I can’t reveal any details.

Life is too short

I enjoy contrasts in life and don’t mind an easier hike one week to start preparing for a more challenging the next. I also like being on my own during an adventure for a stretch of time, and then share a bottle of bubbly with my wife. Life is way too short to put limitations on yourself, I think.

Several times a year, we organise trips to Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain.  We have had participants who sat in their house on the Costa del Sol in Spain and looked over the water and saw the silhouette of Africa and thought: I want to experience that.  And Kilimanjaro is a good mountain as you can walk large parts instead of climb.  But, you still have to train, both strength and endurance, and be reasonably fit to join such a trip.  When you sign up for a trip through us, you receive a plan to follow to get in shape before departure.  One thing to remember is that the walk will be steeply uphill which is completely different from walking on a flat surface.  It is important to take hill workouts seriously!

Everyday adventure

Some things you can think about in your everyday life, regardless of you going off to an adventure or if you are just wanting to have a good life at home is to use your body.  Try and walk 11,000 steps every day, take the stairs instead of the lift, carry heavy bags of groceries, walk or cycle instead of taking the car or catching the bus, take a walk during your lunch break, stand up and work and introduce walk and talk meetings, if you can.

I am environment conscious and our ambition is to be climate neutral.  We, as humans do a lot of stupid stuff.  But, actually, this kind of tourism contribute to the survival of some species.  These animals have a value to eco-tourists and are therefore taken better care of.  Take the Rwanda gorillas for example.  Without the eco-tourism, I doubt the gorillas would survive.

We want to be good guys

We are also a large employer when we organise trips.  For example, for each trip to Kilimanjaro for 16 participants, we employ 80 locals.  It is very important to me that we are a responsible company and that we give back.  Why settle when life contains so much more?  Right now, my biggest adventure is to develop my company.  It is just as exciting and challenging as to ski to one of the poles but in a different way.  ‘Adventures-are-for-everyone-what-adventure-is-yours?’