Alpinist

 

Coaches and mentors:
Rob Powell, Himali, ice-, rock-, mix- and Alpine climbing mentor and coach
Aki Rautava, Arctic Climbers, iceclimbing and winter survival mentor

Sports club:
Lapin Kiipeilijät, Arctic Climbers

 

Development of survival skills

I am an experienced endurance athlete and mountaineer on a big mountain (188 cm, 77 kg, 42 years, 70 ml/kg/min). My sports career has included 25 years of competitive skiing and endurance running, adventure sports and mountain climbing. I started cross-country skiing and endurance running at the age of 5, mountain climbing at the age of 25.

Mountain life and studying

I live half in the Alps and in Finland. I am studying for a third academic degree, I have served in special forces and the army for 20 years and founded an ICT startup alongside my studies. I am goal-oriented by nature and my strengths include focus and execution. Mountain climbing also requires strategic skills to take a big project from start to finish, as well as decision-making ability in the mountains.

Performance above the mountains

At the beginning of the Everest project, I discovered that climbing a mountain below 8,000 meters does not add value to summiting Everest without supplemental oxygen and it is not worth climbing extra mountains, because mountains always have their own risks. Instead, it’s more important to focus on developing my performance and how I can survive above 7100m in peak flows without oxygen tanks. Mountain climbing in the Himalayas is a sporting feat. If I want to enjoy mountain life, I go jogging in the Alps to the tree line or kayaking in Interlaken.

The development of mental endurance

I grew up in special forces and served in the army for 20 years. Service at the Paratrooper School, the Ranger course and as the head of the Guerrilla Company have increased tolerance for physical and mental suffering. I have learned survival skills in special forces and living in the Arctic region near the Arctic Ocean and in the Alps.

There have been many situations in my life that I have come out victorious from. In addition to having survived the challenges of special forces, the army and competitive sports, I have also survived big challenges in life and experienced several dangerous situations during my first years of mountain climbing. My ability to survive has been developed over the years, which has created good conditions to survive without fear in the midst of danger.

The development of mental endurance has been influenced by endurance sports, service in special forces and the Sodankylä Sissikompania, but overcoming the fear of death has been influenced the most by my faith. I have come to faith at the age of 25 at the Cadet School and as a Christian mountaineer I have realized that I only have good options. I don’t feel fear. On the mountain, however, I know when danger and death are near.

The goal is to develop oxygen uptake and climbing skills

My fitness is excellent for a mountaineer and my climbing skills are good. In the 2022 Everest mountain climbing, Max VO2 was around 70 – 73 ml/kg/min and the maximum power levels are excellent for an endurance athlete. My goal is to raise my fitness to the level of 75 ml/kg/min, which is the level of the Finnish national skiing team. On Everest, endurance is more crucial than climbing skills. In terms of rock and ice climbing, my goal is the 7a level, which creates the conditions to climb the steep northern walls of the Alps.

Experience

My two hardest sports achievements are 3737 m in Cooper and 300 km cross-country skiing in less than two days (46.30). In junior years, the result of 80 ml/kg/min in the mat test is comparable among international endurance athletes. Experience and strength have increased over the years.

The most interesting endurance test

The most interesting test of endurance has been a 200 km running hike around Mont Blanc in unsupported style. I took food with me for three days, but I didn’t take into account the 11 vertical kilometers in the energy bills. On the last fourth day, I ran without food for 15 hours, only drinking water down in the valley. It was interesting to watch the hunger grow and grow until it disappears. After 170 kilometers, I decided to start starvation training and run one more mountain. For the first time, I reached a new level in my own hunger training, when the hunger started again, which grew into a great hunger and disappeared again. I always found a few hundred grams of fat somewhere on my body, which I used to run for the last six hours. When I got there, I visited the restaurant twice in a row and also drank a couple of large beers. The amazing thing is that towards the end the pace increased and I managed to run up the last hills.

Paratrooper school and Ranger course

In terms of survival, my best experiences have been the Paratrooper School and the Ranger course, as well as long endurance events and mountain climbing in the Alps. Mountain climbing without supplemental oxygen to Everest means about 36 hours of almost continuous endurance performance, preceded by an eight-hour ascent to 6,500 meters, followed by a five-hour descent to base camp. In challenging special forces exercises and endurance performances, I have learned to push the limit of the comfort zone very far. Often at the point when you feel like you can’t take it, you can still take it at least as much as you did up until then. On the mountain, however, you have to turn home in time and be prepared for rapid changes in the weather, for which numerous survival exercises and endurance performances have given you the skills to learn to know your own survival limits.

The most dangerous journeys

The most dangerous sports performance has been my first mountain climbing trip to the Alps. It’s a downright miracle that my friend and I survived. There were rock walls in front of us and we descended in the canyon with a 4 mm thin rope and climbing down the wet rock. The day before, we had white-out downhill skiing in the gully area and moved the tent away from the place where stones fell. However, we didn’t give up, we learned mountaineering skills, got the right equipment and experience. The Summer 2021 Matterhorn Ultraks Extreme was also a very demanding Sky Run race, which was more mountaineering than running at 3300m in Switzerland.