From the tech basement to Nepal

From a tech basement to base camp Mount Everest

A Mountain Trip with Hans-Petter Nygård Hansen

Happiness equals reality minus expectation. A life motto that Hans-Petter shares with us when we meet on a sunny day in April. A meeting at the office of Fjellsport, due to an interview regarding his latest hiking adventure, where he used mainly products from Urberg. And this shared life motto, we learn, is forged from many different life experiences.

Hans-Petter Nygård-Hansen is one of our ambassadors at Urberg, helping us test products on different adventures as well as giving us content to share with our followers. This March, Hans-Petter went on an adventure few of us gets to experience – base camp Mount Everest. But how did a tech-profile and tech influencer become a hell-bent hiker that loves the outdoor, taking it as far as hiking to base camp Mount Everest when only hiking for a few years?

I was born and partially raised in Sandefjord, Norway. My father, a computer engineer in the military, led to many relocations for our family. This exposure to diverse locations and constant change developed a tolerance for change in me, I think. I took a keen interest in technology at an early age and at the age of 7, I began programming on my father’s computer. This early introduction with technology instilled a love for technology in different forms. Therefore, I started to study computer science in Oslo and after graduation, started to work with Cisco and online shopping as early as 1995.

Technology was the right thing for me and as I had worked with the technical business side of it, I began to also get an interest of the human side of technology. Soon I started to mix it with marketing and PR, where I wanted to explore the impact of social media on our lives and behavior. This was early on but soon the digital technology took presence in the world and the demand for knowledge within this was in great demand – therefore, armed with knowledge about social media and technology, I started my own company. It went well and I really enjoyed working with these topics – until the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which hit my business hard.

The pandemic was of course hard overall for many of us – both mentally and business wise. But as the society tried to find its footing back, the business didn’t really take off as before and I found myself becoming more and more negative. And among all this, I was diagnosed with diabetes.

Finding myself being quite depressed, technology once again becomes a catalysator for changing my life. With time on my hands, I started to explore nature in the form of a drone. This was based in a technical interest but as the time spent outdoors started to become frequent, another big part of my life started to form – the love of nature. I started to challenge myself, gradually increasing my outdoor adventure activities from spending a night in the wild, to climbing higher peaks.

The love of outdoors started to heal me mentally. I found that the journey, despite its hardships, provided me with a renewed perspective. The juxtaposition of nature and technology was a revelation for me, plus, the challenges I faced brought a newfound satisfaction. Even though I still had a passion for technology, regulating my interaction with technology when being outdoors became natural when turning the phone on flight mode and removing notifications. It helped me regain control of my life.

Increasing outdoor challenges and starting to share these on Youtube has led me to many interesting interactions and new relationships of other enthusiasts, wanting to learn more about hiking and spend nights outdoors. But it was once again technology that was the foundation of how I ended up travelling to Nepal with Kristin Harila (record holder of climbing all 14 8,000-meter mountains in just 91 days) and this happened because of the shared interest of drones.

Taking myself to base camp of Mount Everest was both a physical and mental challenge. But hard-won challenges are the ones that are more worth it. And when I finally made it to base camp, I felt very emotional.

I have really proven to myself with each new challenge I have taken outdoors, and I am presently more content and have the best physical health in 30 years. The brands Fjellsport and Urberg played a crucial role in my journey, aiding me in exploring the outdoors, which led to this positive shift in my life – and for this I am grateful.

It’s hard to not get inspired by Hans-Petter sharing his journey from a tech basement to base camp Mount Everest. Of course, we are somewhat biased – but Hans-Petters journey to outdoor adventure is a true testiment of how powerful nature is when it comes to wellbeing. And we are grateful that we have the opportunity to enable both Hans-Petter and other outdoor enthusiast to get out and explore nature. After all, we are still only humans and nature are our natural habitat. Do you agree?