More Norwegian Inspo

Last year, with the race season stymied by the pandemic, ageless legend Anders Aukland went searching for a new challenge, and found one: he and his brother Jurgen and teammate Joar Thele headed out on a long ski, a very long ski, to set a new record for nonstop skiing.  They ended up skiing 516km in 31.5 hours.  But it didn't take long for a challenger to be inspired to step up, and the following week, 45-year-old Henrik Sollie beat that record, skiing 530km in 32 hours.

So this year, with a still-disappointing, covid-stunted race season, Anders came back to set a new record, putting it high up on the shelf out of reach.  Heading out at 6am on a Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago, and stopping only for refreshments and to put on warm clothes during the cold night, he and Thele and Simen Ostensen ended up setting three new records: Ostensen skied 550km, then stopped.  Thele continued to the 610km mark (37 hours), then stopped.  And Aukland just kept skiing and skiing and skiing, finishing 700km in 41 hours.  700km!  That's 420 miles, for crying out loud.  In the process, he raised 1 million kroner for the charity Right to Play, an international nonprofit founded by Olympic speedskater Johann Olav Koss to empower vulnerable children.  Will Sollie come back again to best the new record?  Stay tuned!

Oh, and Aukland is 48 years old.  Not a bad way to spend a weekend!