{"id":3125,"date":"2025-01-13T12:22:04","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T12:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wildvoss.no\/?p=3125"},"modified":"2025-06-23T09:20:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T09:20:58","slug":"get-to-know-our-ski-guides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wildvoss.no\/en\/post\/get-to-know-our-ski-guides\/","title":{"rendered":"Get to Know Our Ski Guides"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What did you dream of becoming as a kid? A rock star, an astronaut or maybe a candy tester? Most of us grow up, suppress these ideas, and chose more sensible careers. You study and get a job that you may not be that passionate about, but which has good hours and pays well. 

Several of our guides followed this exact recipe, but were left feeling unfulfilled. In the quest for a change they dared to follow their intuition a gave their childish dream a shot. Today our guides work with playing outdoors and spreading this enthusiasm among our guests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nordic Ski Guru \u00d8ystein Orm\u00e5sen: Founder, Co-owner & Guide<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you were to describe the upbringing of a classic Norwegian you would probably not be far off from \u00d8ystein’s childhood in Telemark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2013 We would travel to cabins in the mountains every holiday. Those days were typically filled with cross-country skiing, sausages on the campfire and whining kids. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

After 10 years in the scouts, the young man sought new challenges in the military. Long days with a heavy backpack and soaked clothes would make most people crave a pi\u00f1a colada somewhere warm. \u00d8ystein, on the other hand, was filled with motivation and self-confidence from pushing his limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After the military, he studied IT, math and education in Bergen. \u00d8ystein also volunteered as a guide for a student outdoors group, and discovered climbing on his exchange to Australia. Following his studies, he became a board member of DNT Fjellsport and became a glacier, climbing and avalanche instructor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After \u00d8ystein had two children with his partner, he started spending less and less time outdoors. When the family got the opportunity to move to Voss, he was quick to quit his teaching job of 7 years. In Voss he didn’t have much luck with finding a job of interest. This predicament was the final push he needed to follow his dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 2015, \u00d8ystein started the company Villsn\u00f8 (Wild Snow) AS, which later developed into Wild Voss. If you are curious of how the company went from renting out a mountain farm to becoming a year-round adventure business you can read the whole story here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, he combines operational work and guiding with his job as an observer for the avalanche forecast Varsom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What fills \u00d8ystein cup of tea is seeing guests expand their horizons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2013 I feel like I have succeeded when participants go from being excited and nervous in the morning to feeling safe, smiling and laughing by the end of the day. It gives me a kick to take people out of their comfort zone a little bit, where they realize: \u201cWow, I can do this much better than I thought.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Although the family man doesn\u2019t mind feeling air under his wings following a ridge traverse in Hurrungene, he is more of a Nordic ski guru who thrives exploring his home region, especially Jordalen and Raundalen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Couloir Slayer Carlos Abraldes Szigriszt: Co-owner & Guide<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Even though Carlos is not Norwegian, you could say he was born with (slalom) skis on his feet. His parents were ski instructor pioneers in Spain, and started one of the country’s first ski schools in the Basque Country, Pyrenees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His childhood home was filled to the brim with ski racing medals and trophies from the entire family. When Carlos turned 12 he got to choose what dicipline to compete in, and he jumped over on the freestyle team. It was not until he was 16 that he was finally allowed to \u201cjust ski\u201d with his friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The buddies had a blast jibbing and riding off-piste, before the big mountains started calling their names. Ski touring was still a marginal sport in Spain, and there were few mentors and educational resources. Carlos explains that it was a bit of a “Wild West” out there, with a lot of trial and error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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His passion for steep skiing took him to Chamonix after completing a master’s degree in business, economics and marketing. In his job as a store manager for a climbing store, he learned a lot from ski guides representing various brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCouloir slayer Carlos\u201d quickly discovered that he was playing on the wrong side of playing field, and threw a 180. He quit his job and started working towards a career in guiding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love later seduced him to Bergen, where he worked for several years with simple guiding tours in Western Norway. The Spaniard started craving greater challenges, and became a norwegian high mountain climbing instructor, glacier instructor and avalanche instructor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Now Carlos has gained over seven years of profesional experience working in the mountains surrounding Voss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlos is particularly passionate about spreading mountaineering and avalanche knowledge, since he never had the opportunity to properly learn about on a structurate way while growing up. He also loves helping guests finding their flow through tweaking their skiing technique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Scolar Rasmus Normann Levin Larsen: Guide<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When you first meet Rasmus, you realize that this man knows a thing or two when it comes to outdoor sports. Not only is he a ski instructor, he also teaches river kayaking and rock climbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2013 I can teach everything I love to do in the outdoors.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

However, his main focus is guiding ski tours and hosting avalanche workshops. He is currently completing the final courses to become an international ski guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today Rasmus is a guy who studies in detail, and emphasizes quality in his teaching, but it hasn’t always been that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Dane grew up without many skiing opportunities, besides a couple of family ski holidays to Sweden and Norway. He clearly remembers his first skiing experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2013 I was only 5 years old and I remember that I had an idea in my head of how to ski. Everyone said it was very difficult, and that you had to go to ski school to learn, but after an hour or two I figured it out! I never ended up going to ski school.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Safe to say the youngster had talent, however, Rasmus didn’t get completely hooked until he went to France as a teen and tried ski touring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After high school, he saved up some money and spent a season in Whistler, Canada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2013 I had no idea what I was doing and didn’t know anyone, but I quickly realized that I needed avalanche equipment and some wider planks.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the winter he started ski touring more and gradually gained more self-confidence. He quickly became a better skiier and started riding off larger drops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2013 I felt youthfully immortal before I got a real wake-up call. First, a friend of mine died skiing. A month later, I sent a big drop and almost broke my back.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Hungry for knowledge, Rasmus moved to Norway 10 years ago to study outdoor education in B\u00f8, Telemark. Through his studies he learned a lot about ski touring, avalanches, and ski technique and has since worked with skiing in the winter as an instructor, ski patroller and ski guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rasmus is grateful that he gets to share his passion with others through his job. The guide particularly enjoys telling guests about the nature and culture of the area they are recreating in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2013 After a course with me, I hope the participants feel empowered to go out on a trip themselves, explore, seek out adventures, and try out what they have just learned.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What the he values the \u200b\u200bmost about Voss is the non-crowded skiing opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2013 In Voss you have about 90% of the places with good skiing terrain to yourself. I also really enjoy skiing in the forest, and I would say Voss has the best treeskiing in Norway.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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