Epic Escape to Norway's Stunning Fjords: Another Escape Magazine Adventure

Rachel Maria Taylor and Jody Daunton journeyed to Norway for the latest issue of their outdoor lifestyle magazine Another Escape. Deep fjords, tall mountains, and thick forests were just the beginning of what they discovered — Norwegians have a close relationship with their natural surroundings (the concept is known as friluftsliv), truly embracing nature and enjoying the outdoors as a way of life. You can see outtakes from the adventure here, along with an excerpt from the published story. Look out for the recently launched fifth issue of Another Escape.

NORWAY – Bordering Sweden, Finland, and Russia, with a ragged flank that disappears into the pitted bed of the Norwegian sea, Norway is a slender spool of craggy peaks, vaulting waterfalls, mirrored lakes and fjords, and woolly forests. To the west, the landscape is carved out by glaciers, with the abrupt slopes of the Scandinavian mountains towards the North Sea.

Numerous corridors of valley connect this raw, imposing topography to the spruce-carpeted hills of the east. And while the north is characterized by fjords, mountains, vast snowfields and some of Europe's largest glaciers, the south is a gradation of urban living, agricultural lowlands, fells, and docile coastal living.

At every point of the compass, Norway's landscape is arresting; a lush, undulating conduit for friluftsliv that craves no less than pure abandonment to its mysteries. Literally (and inadequately) translated as 'free air life,' the phrase is, at its most fundamental, a deep appreciation for and interaction with nature. – Choechoe Brereton