NPL 2025 IDEA
"Norge på langs" means "The length of Norway". It's a legendary adventure and a dream of every active Norwegian. However, only a few people have ever dared to fulfill it. There are only 2 general rules. You must get from Lindesnes Lighthouse in the south of Norway to the northernmost point of the country, fabled Nordkapp, using only your own power. And you have to stay all the time in Norway. It doesn't matter which way you choose. Whether you walk on the road or follow mountain trails, go by bike or sea kayak, that's completely up to you. On foot it usually takes from 4 up to 6 months. Until summer 2022 only two people have run it. The runners ran on asphalt roads full of cars, non-stop supported by their teams, and they took the shortest possible route, which was about 2550 km. It's a great sports achievement, but our aims and our "perception of an adventure" are totally different.
In July 2022, filmmaker Petr decided to attempt the first wilderness run and, at the same time, the historically first clean crossing of Norway. Clean means without using asphalt roads at all. Supported by a small, dedicated team, he ran alone. His goal was to find and establish the most beautiful natural path across Norway. He ran 3000 km through cold unknown mountains, grueling wetlands with billions of mosquitoes, across the never-ending subarctic plateaus. Very often in pure pathless wilderness far from civilization. He also climbed 10 iconic Norwegian mountains. Every day he spent 3-7 hours filming his journey, which slowed down the pace of his run significantly. After 72 running days spent in the Norwegian wilderness, Petr reached Nordkapp in a clean style, with less than 1 km of his journey spent on asphalt. The future official NPL trail was born.
In 2025 we will set on the 3000 km journey again. Our goal now is to establish the final version of the clean NPL trail and promote it as the hardest and most beautiful long-distance trail in Europe. It's going to be another life-changing experience. Join the story...
TASTE THE NPL ATMOSPHERE
Watch a short documentary film about Petr's NPL vision and the preparations for the first-ever clean wilderness run across Norway in 2022. Even today, this film beautifully captures the essence of the entire NPL idea and our story.
NPL 2025 TEAM
GOALS AND MESSAGE OF THE PROJECT
There are four main goals of the 2025 project
1) Establishing a Benchmark Long-Distance Wilderness Trail Across Norway and Setting an FKT
In October 2022, Petr finished the historically first clean crossing of Norway without using asphalt roads. The new, 2,963 km-long clean wilderness trail across Norway was born. The focus was not on speed, but rather on the beauty and purity of the new trail-and mainly on filming detailed, authentic daily materials for upcoming film and film series.
We are primarily filmmakers, so capturing the story of our journey in a raw, authentic way during the 2022 run was our absolute priority! Far more important than just running NPL itself. Our cameras and drones captured even the most difficult situations and crises. We filmed everywhere, every day, several months in a row. This is our strength. Filming took 3 - 7 hours daily and slowed down the run enormously. But this hard part of the whole NPL trail project is done! The new trail is mostly perfectly documented!
In summer 2025, Petr will stand in Lindesnes, at the start of this 3000 km journey once again. The goal of this new project is to re-shape parts of the trail to make it even wilder. To implement such changes, the whole trail must be run again in one attempt! The new goal is to focus on speed and setting up "FKT" (Fastest Known Time) and giving this "polished" final trail challenge to the international running and thru-hiking communities. Filming will be part of the project again, but in a limited way, focused on the new parts and the most interesting moments as they happen. Not on mapping the route in detail, this was done already in 2022.
We believe that this will become the hardest and the most beautiful long-distance trail in Europe. We know that a strong film will transform "Norge på langs trail" into a new trail legend, like for example world-famous PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) in the USA. Just nicer and much harder.
2) Creating Awareness of NPL Project + Innovative Daily Reports
During the preparations for this project, we will begin to communicate our idea with determination. With the first-ever clean run across Norway completed in great style—and the most challenging filming already accomplished—we now have a very compelling story to tell. It is finally time to share our achievements with the world! We will use our 2025 NPL run as the perfect opportunity to communicate the entire NPL concept to various target groups and the general public.
We will reach out to various media outlets, destination companies, podcasts, and other platforms, both within and outside of Norway.
We will begin building robust new social media channels for NPL. We know this is not an easy task in 2025, but we have excellent content and the skills of experienced filmmakers. In addition, we will also share many details from the training and preparations.
Running the length of Norway in a clean style is an extremely tough challenge itself, even without the added burden of filming. On such a trip, one is exhausted already after the first week. As mentioned above, in summer 2025, we will primarily focus on the speed of the run rather than on filming every moment. This time, we will focus more on producing sophisticated daily reports directly from the run itself.
Several months before the run we will work on developing the most effective way of storytelling for social and other media.
3) Raising Budget for a World-Class Adventure Film, Film Series, and Comprehensive NPL Website
Over the eight years we've dedicated to the NPL project (starting with our initial promo footage from the first exploratory journeys filmed as early as 2017), we've collected nearly 350 hours of exceptional footage.This is an enormous amout of moments, that must now be crafted into a captivating feature-length documentary and a multi-episode film series. This requires at least 6 months of everyday hardcore editing and other postproduction. To be able to do so, we need to raise sufficient budget to bring the whole NPL story to life.
Read about our MEDIA OUTPUT
Read about our FILMING STRATEGY
The 2025 run will serve as a powerful promotional opportunity, helping us gather support and funding to produce all of the necessary media outputs and place the NPL trail firmly on the world stage.
4) Doing Something for "Greater Good"
It's not only the journey of the body but, above all, a journey of the mind. A healthy, strong mind is what matters most in the chaotic world we've been living in over the past years. Throughout our preparations, daily reports during the run, and especially in our film, we want to talk about meaningful values, healthier routines, self-discipline, and sharper focus. We believe that if more people experienced Norge på langs, the world would be a better place. Let our new NPL trail be a powerful inspiration...
ROUTE
July - August 2025
The trail from 2022 is 2,963 km long with +101 443 meters of vertical gain. It's incredibly rich in all types of Nordic landscapes, passing through Norway's most important mountain ranges and plateaus, reaching the highest peaks, and traversing the wildest, pathless places in all of Scandinavia. Simply put, it connects the most interesting and diverse parts of Norway into a logical, clean, and stunning trail.
Clean means that you must "stay off asphalt roads" from the very start. Ideally you just cross them on your way north! This attitude makes the route extremely challenging in several parts of Norway! Petr managed to keep his total asphalt distance below 1 km over the course of his 76 asphalt road crossings.
For crossing large lakes, sea straits or major Norwegian rivers, we will use small inflatable boat. We will again climb at least 12 iconic Norwegian mountains, including the highest mountains of southern and northern Norway.
We will stay all the time only within the borders of Norway, unlike the majority of NPL hikers, who bypass the technically hardest, pathless, remote parts of Norway by escaping into easier marked trails in Sweden and Finland.
Please read more about our RULES AND ETHICS
The goal is to run at least 50 km per day = maximum 60 days
However, while it sounds achievable on paper, in reality it is often far more difficult. We are in Scandinavia's far north, where our route frequently passes through vast wilderness without established trails. In some parts Petr must navigate through labyrinths of steep rock walls, dense forests, deep fjords, glaciers, wild rivers and wetlands. In the hardest parts, it is success if you "run" 1 km per hour, no matter how strong you are. On good trails in some national parks like Hardangervidda, Petr did up to 90 km in one day.
Each part of this route is generally very physically demanding. Additionally, there are 2 extremely difficult parts, which we call "Mysterious Southern Jungle" and "Norwegian Yosemite". In these 2 parts, all other NPL thru-hikers always walk or bike long parts on the asphalt roads, use the ferry boats or go through Sweden in much milder terrain.
We, however, will always go purely through nature and always stay only on Norwegian soil.
Click here for all the interesting details about the ROUTE AND STRATEGY
View from the summit Okssolten, the highest mountain of northern Norway, during the NPL 2022 run.
WHY IS OUR PROJECT "DIFFERENT"?
This multimedia project has many interesting aspects. Sports, adventurous, entertaining, motivational and also commercial.
1) Historically first clean off/trail run across the most beautiful country in the world
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No asphalt roads and minimum mountain gravel roads
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We stay 100% only in Norway
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Establishing a remarkable new trail across the whole of Norway
2) 100% authenticity
We think big, and YES, we know we're stepping onto thin ice. Everything we claim, we can prove - read our RULES AND ETHICS
3) Variety of activities
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Climbing 10 iconic Norwegian mountains - Petr will climb again Hårteigen, Kyrkja, Galdhøpiggen, Glittertind, Ruten, Midtre Sølen, Store Svuku, Skjækerhatten, Okssolten, Gasskatjåhkkå, Halti and Gárdevárri. And a countless number of less known peaks long the way.
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Blåmannsissen glacier traverse - This glacier is the only way to get from Sulitjelma to Narvikfjellet with "dry feet" and not using the main E6 road or easier terrain in Sweden. The most dangerous, extremely remote, and wild 200 km of the whole trip.
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Sea and river crossings - the runner will skip all asphalt bridges over the major Norwegian rivers. He will swim, wade them or use small boat. He will also skip Nordkapptunnelen, the 7 km long undersea asphalt tunnel which ALL NPL hikers use to get Magerøya island, home to the legendary Nordkapp, the final destination of our journey.
4) Daily reports from the run
Both Petr (runner) and Stina (support team) will share visually attractive daily reports across various social media platforms and also right here, on our dedicated website, where it will "stay forever". Photos, insightful short videos, sometimes livestreams from the run, and of course, behind-the-scenes perspective. We'll also post facts about the current area, daily maps, statistics, gear etc.
We won't just post basic Instagram stories; instead, we aim to create compelling, newsworthy coverage directly from the action.
5) Motivation and going for dreams
"The hardest run across Norway... Detailed daily reports... World-class film, successful film series and a cool book... Wow... "
All this probably sounds like pure SCI-FI, naivety, or at the very least, a total lack of realism, right?
This would be challenging even for a large, professional film crew—let alone just two people working on a limited budget. Yes, under normal circumstances, this would seem impossible. It's going to be brutal, and we are fully aware of it. But…
We've already done it in 2022!
We've spent 3 years now perfecting every single aspect of the project. This is Petr's lifelong project, where he can use all the skills he got during his 17 years of professional outdoor sports filmmaking.
We are ready...