← National Park After Dark
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- [00:01]
Cecilia Scogg
Not all meals are created equal. For instance, breakfast has a spicy egg McMuffin for a limited time and lunch doesn't. McDonald's breakfast comes first.
- [00:16]
National Park After Dark Host 1
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to National Park After Dark. We're so excited to have you all here. This week we're doing something a little bit different as we're doing an interview for our Monday episode.
- [00:27]
National Park After Dark Host 2
We are. We just wrapped up with an incredible woman named Cecilia and you are going to hear everything from how she got into her passion of extreme sports and mountaineering to her climbs around the world.
- [00:41]
National Park After Dark Host 1
Yes, we're so excited to bring this interview to you all. Cecilia is an incredibly accomplished high altitude mountaineer who has climbed the tallest peaks on every continent and has skied across both the north and South Poles. Cecelia grew up in Norway surrounded by mountains, which, from her words, she became completely obsessed with as a teenager. As she became more comfortable recreating in the outdoors, her passion led her all over the world. She took climbing courses, trained as a guide, and became a nurse. However, nursing fell to the wayside as she discovered her deep love for the outdoors, and instead she furthered her outdoor career as a professional mountaineer.
- [01:19]
National Park After Dark Host 2
While her outdoor accomplishments are endless and ongoing, she has recently became a speaker on the podcast Extreme Peak Danger, where she details her experience on the second tallest mountain in the K2 in Pakistan. Cecilia was involved in the tragic mountaineering accident that occurred on K2 in 2008, which resulted in the deaths of 11 climbers, one of whom was her husband, Rolf Bay. Today she joins us to discuss her experiences as a mountaineer, the expedition on K2, along with the incredible achievement she has completed around the world. Cecilia Scogg, welcome to National Park After Dark. Hello, Cecilia, and welcome to National Park After Dark. Thank you so much for being here.
- [02:22]
Cecilia Scogg
Thank you for having me.
- [02:24]
National Park After Dark Host 2
To say you are an incredibly accomplished person in the realm of outdoor recreation feels like a statement that kind of falls embarrassingly short given your extensive resume. You have done so much in the world of professional adventuring, mountaineering, climbing and guiding, but we know that you weren't just born that way with all of that experience. So can you give us a little bit of insight into your life growing up and how you fell in love with extreme adventuring?
- [02:51]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah. I grew up in a part of Norway situated on the west coast of Norway where there is beautiful surroundings, really nice peaks, sharp peaks. So that was the scenery outside my window, but it was just the scenery for me until I was in my teenagers. The first time I visited one of these tall mountains I was 40 or. Yeah, in my teenage sometime. I can't exactly remember what age, but I visited together with some friends. And that first climb did so much to me. It was like a big change just there from these sceneries that I just had looked at from my window. And it was just. I felt so much home there in these mountains. I was scared because there was so much air around. I could absolutely feel that I had to be really careful. I watched like every step I took. But the feeling of achievement and the view and looking back to the city where I grew up, like the opposite view that I used to have and being there with my friends, it was absolutely life changer.
- [04:11]
National Park After Dark Host 1
How did you go from out hiking around in where you grew up to starting to climb and going out into these extreme heights and weather conditions? How did you make that change?
- [04:25]
Cecilia Scogg
Well, after that first visit to one of these tall mountains where you have to. It's not climbing, but it's scrambling. I just wanted to visit again and again and again. So that next summer I visited every day when I was walking around in my little village. If the weather was good and I could look at the mountains, I could like hear them calling, hello, where are you? Come visit again. Yeah, I felt at home there in these mountains. But one day I wanted to go to that mountain and I looked at a really beautiful mountain. But somebody told me that, no, we can't go there because there is a big glacier we have to cross and we don't know how to do that. So I decided that I want to learn how to cross a glacier. So I joined a course and after a while I became a glacier instructor. So that was my summer job, guiding tourists on different glaciers on the west coast and being there with having new friends that had the same interests as me, the passion being in the mountains. We decided that we wanted to go outside Norway where the mountains were higher. So that's how I joined some friends and we decided to first climb or walk. It's really hard walk in France. And I think I was 21 and on that little trip, it's only like a day and a half, but we're up at 4800 meters. And I could feel that my body adapted really fast to the altitude. And when we'd been climbing in Norway, I wasn't the strongest or I didn't carry the heaviest backpack or anything. But suddenly there in the thin, thin air, I felt really strong. I could compare myself to the rest of the group. And so that's a good feeling, suddenly being strong and have capacity to help and to really enjoy what we did.
- [06:40]
National Park After Dark Host 2
Well, it seems like you really, really enjoyed what you did because fast forward a few years and by 2006, you were dubbed the first woman to ever reach the seven highest peaks on all seven continents and ski the two poles. So congratulations. We are in the presence of greatness right now. That is unbelievably impressive. Can you explain what a huge feat that was and that feeling of accomplishment afterwards?
- [07:08]
Cecilia Scogg
Well, I kind of look at it a little bit different. It was. It was my life. I also became a nurse at that time, but the seasons I worked inside the hospital became shorter and shorter because I wanted to be on the glacier. I wanted to be out there with my friends and to climb. And we were so curious, how high can we go and how can we plan that? And to me, it was when I wasn't on my own expeditions or my own journeys, I guided other people, which I also used to love a lot of. I still do, actually. So it was just like the mountains got just all the time a little bit higher and the ski trips a little bit longer. And I was so curious to see all the different parts, all the different horizons at all the different parts in the world. One day I came home from guiding Greenland, crossing across Greenland, and I told my mom that, mom, I really want to go to Antarctica. I really want to go to the South Pole because I just want that kind of the trip to not end so fast. I just want to continue and to try to have a heavier sled and to be out the whole season. And then I. And also said, and then after that, I would really love to see the polar ocean. I want to go to the North Pole. And then she said, but it's there. North Pole and the South Pole more or less the same. It's totally different. It's so different. And it is so. I just feel so. And I also felt at that time so fortunate to be. To have these, to have this passion. I felt really lucky to feel that I was so drawn to it. I was so curious and to sit there and look at maps and. And to plan the journeys with my friends, my boyfriend was so meaningful. It was a direction. When I got out of bed, I didn't get out of bed. I jumped out of bed, so ready for the next day and to be in this adventure. And really I felt I was living a dream.
- [09:38]
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- [10:55]
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- [11:30]
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- [11:32]
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- [11:52]
National Park After Dark Host 1
When you say that you spoke to your mom about your plans, did she, did she have interest in these type of things or what was her reaction when you said you wanted to go all of these places?
- [12:05]
Cecilia Scogg
No, she. She's. She's very different. She became a mom when she was 16. I was born. I was only 1.6 kilos, 1600 grams when I was born. She had so much struggle with me the first years because if I cried, I fainted from exhaustion of crying. So she really had to train me when I was little to be able to walk up a little hill because of. My lungs were not developed. Right. Wow. So I think she's always been kind of protective. She didn't say that I wasn't allowed to go anywhere, but she didn't cheer for it either. She. I think she wanted me to stay home, but I listened to her one time when she came with me to one of my speeches, and a man came up to her and asked her, and she didn't even know that I was there because I was behind her back talking to someone else. But I could hear he asked her, how did you let your daughter do all these things? And then she said, do you have kids? Yes, I have kids. He said, do you want them to be happy? Of course I do. That's all parents do. Yeah. And so do I, she said. And I was like, yeah. So she. I could feel that she was with me on my trips, on my journeys, but she wasn't like. She didn't give me any more attention than my siblings. We just did whatever we wanted. But I could feel that she was with me. But I always had. I felt bad putting her in a situation where she had to be scared of me not coming back.
- [13:58]
Advertisement Host 1
Right.
- [13:59]
National Park After Dark Host 1
It sounds like she was pretty supportive. And just like you said, she just wanted you to be happy. And I think it's really interesting that a man asked how she could let you go out and do these things. But at the same time, there's so many women who do want to go out, do these things. And when you were going to all these different continents, going to the highest peaks in the world, did you know that you were the first woman to do all of them, or did it just happen?
- [14:31]
Cecilia Scogg
Well, I. I knew because I knew that there hadn't been anyone that had tried. So that was kind of just a hook where we could, like, place that expedition for. Because we needed sponsors because it's expensive to go to many of these remote places. So we needed sponsors. We needed someone to come with us, like a partner. So it was kind of a hook to kind of place this on. But when I'm out there and when I'm just doing my everyday life there on the polar ocean or on the high mountain, it's. It's not important there. The only. That's not my focus when I'm out. It's not even motivating, actually. It's all the other things. It's the scenery, it's the curiosity, it's the being the best partner. And the nature that itself couldn't motivate me that much.
- [15:38]
National Park After Dark Host 1
Just being out there.
- [15:39]
Cecilia Scogg
And anyway, if you have a first ascent observation, something it's. I don't see the big difference in like if a lot of people have been there before and you're there for first time, it's. It's the first time for me anyway. So it, it doesn't change my present when I'm there. Right. If you know, if you understand.
- [16:00]
National Park After Dark Host 1
Yeah, definitely. Can you tell me what it feels, what it feels like for you when you do ascend and you reach the summit of these peaks that you've been dreaming about?
- [16:13]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah. It's different if you reach a pole like the North Pole, South Pole, or even the crossing. Then when you're at the end of your kind of your geographically target, it's not only the goal to reach it. There is so many other goals being out there. But when you're there, then you kind of finished, somebody will pick you up there. But when you're on the top of a mountain and you're on the highest point point, you're only halfway. So that's always in the back of my head now. It's the most dangerous and difficult part. It's getting back safely.
- [16:52]
National Park After Dark Host 2
Right. So focusing. We know that, you know, you've gone to all the highest peaks in the world, but we do know that after you summited Everest, you returned to the same area later to tackle K2. Can you tell us a little bit about what differentiates and makes K2 different then Everest? Because a lot of our listeners are very familiar with Mount Everest, but not so much with K2.
- [17:17]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah, I don't know how it is now because I think the last years it's been happening. Commercialization. Is that how you say it of K2 as well, that people go there and they join like a group of people that pay to be a part of a team. Like it's been on Everest for a very long time. But in 2005, when we were there for the first time, we were there 96 days climbing up and down. We brought 3500 meters of rope ourselves and fixed every centimeter of it. And in 2008, you're there as climbers and you climb it together with the other teams. There were, no, not normally, not originally a culture for bringing like Sherpas and climbers that would help you and fix the ropes for you.
- [18:18]
National Park After Dark Host 1
Yeah, it was something you were doing yourself. You didn't pay someone to do it for you.
- [18:23]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah. It's not like the culture of guiding hadn't started in 2008 and you said.
- [18:30]
National Park After Dark Host 1
You were your first time that you were on K2, you were there for 96 days.
- [18:35]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah.
- [18:36]
National Park After Dark Host 1
That's a long time.
- [18:37]
Cecilia Scogg
That was actually six days more than we were allowed to be there. So we had to have help from the Norwegian Embassy to get back home. We had a limit of 90 days, but we stretched it. And that was only because we were waiting for the good weather. And we turned around so many times, like 11 times in Camp 2 and three times in Camp 3. And we got to know that mountain so well, but we didn't get to see the top part of the mountain or from. From Camp 3 and above. So when we went home in 2005, I think we knew that one day we were going to go back.
- [19:14]
National Park After Dark Host 1
Because you didn't. That during that trip you didn't get to the summit.
- [19:18]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah.
- [19:18]
National Park After Dark Host 1
Wow. And for 96 days. Can you explain a little bit? Because I know that when you are climbing in altitudes that high, you can't just hike up. You. Your body has to act. Can you explain a little bit of what that feeling is like when you're up at that high of an elevation, what it's like to hike and breathe and the toll it has on your body?
- [19:43]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah, you have to give your body time to acclimate, to build more red blood cells that can carry oxygen around the body, and that takes time. So you have to be really patient in the beginning, otherwise you can develop high altitude sickness. So we walk really slow. We do that also to not stress the body, to give the body more energy. So I can start all these processes that it needs to develop to acclimate. So we walk slow also, because it's harder to breathe. So it takes time. But after a while you start. You feel comfortable around 5,000 meter, where Basecamp is, and then you start pushing up on the mountain. You walk up a few hundred meters and then you go back down. Maybe you have a little something to carry up. You leave that on the mountain, go back down, sleep. Next time you go up, maybe you fix Camp one and leave things there. Maybe you put up a tent, you can sleep there. And then you go back down, and then you go back up again. And then you carry something to Camp 2, and then you go back to Camp 2. One sleep there maybe. And then. So you climb the mountain, like many.
- [21:05]
National Park After Dark Host 1
Times, over and over again, over and over again.
- [21:09]
Cecilia Scogg
And then suddenly there's been an avalanche in the bad weather, so all the tents are gone next time you come up. So you have to start over again. So that's how that life is. But there will be periods with bad weather on the mountain when you're there. But that's okay. Then you crawl back to base camp and you have you visit other expedition teams or other teams there you go and drink tea, maybe you watch a movie and that's it's a little community there suddenly with everybody there with the same interest and same passion and it's really nice.
- [21:52]
National Park After Dark Host 1
I imagine you meet a lot of friends.
- [21:54]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah. And because we went to high mountains many times during one year, often we met a lot of people, the same people over and over again. So they become really good friends and it's nice to catch up there you have so much time to talk and just to wait until the weather will let you back up on the mountain again.
- [22:20]
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- [24:32]
National Park After Dark Host 2
Yeah. So in 2008, when you returned to K2, as you just outlined, there are so many different factors that need to align to make a successful climb. The preparation, the weather, different conditions and things like that, all in perfect alignment. So how long were you on K2 the second time around before you actually vied for the summit?
- [24:56]
Cecilia Scogg
I think in 2008 we were there for maybe 60 days. Yeah, I think we, we started to track in in June and then we tried or yeah, summited first of August. So about two months I think.
- [25:15]
National Park After Dark Host 1
And when I was looking at K2 there is a short window of time where the weather allows you to do that.
- [25:22]
National Park After Dark Host 2
Right.
- [25:22]
National Park After Dark Host 1
There's only a couple months in summer where the weather is good enough to be up there.
- [25:27]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah, that's right. And it happens the same more or less the same period every year. August sometime in August.
- [25:36]
National Park After Dark Host 1
And when you went up the second time, were you there with people who you had been with in 2005?
- [25:43]
Cecilia Scogg
We were the same. We were four in our team. It was me and my husband Rolf when we were there in 2005. We're only boyfriend and girlfriend and it was Eistein. He was also there in 2005, but Lars was a new member of the team.
- [26:00]
National Park After Dark Host 2
Okay, so you mentioned on August 1st is the day that you finally summited K2. What was that feeling like?
- [26:08]
Cecilia Scogg
It had been a really different night. It'd been a night. By 2008 I had been on five other 8,000 meter peaks and I'd never had that feeling anywhere before. It was gut feeling that I, I wasn't comfortable with. So reaching the summit it was. It was amazing to see the shadow into China, the shadow of the mountain into China. And it was sunset. It was beautiful. And reaching the summit with the lush was fantastic. But I also had that gut feeling and I wanted to, to turn around and climb back to Rolfe that was waiting for us a few hundred meters below the summit. So I don't think we were up there many minutes. We just looked at the view and gave each other a hug, took two pictures and then we turned around and.
- [27:11]
National Park After Dark Host 1
You turned around and you went back. Rolf had waited that day. I had, had seen that he decided not to summit with you. But he was waiting. Was he really excited for you when you got Back to him that you made it to the summit.
- [27:26]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah. He was excited when he saw us continue and he said, I'll just wait for you here. He said, come on, you go, go, go. You can do it. Cheering you on, cheering us up. And when we got back to him, he was so, he was so glad. He's so happy. He was happy for us, he was happy for the team. And. And then he said, but now let's get back down. Yeah.
- [27:52]
National Park After Dark Host 2
You mentioned that you had a gut feeling that day that something wasn't quite right or something felt off. Do you know, were you the only one who felt that or do you know of others who had a similar feeling?
- [28:06]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah, I, I assume or I know that in my team we all felt. Because it wasn't just a gut feeling. It was all the different incident that had happened earlier that morning where there were supposed to be ropes in the bottleneck. There were no ropes in the bottleneck. The rope was put on the shoulder where it's flat. And so there were so many different incidents that happened that it wasn't right. There were so many things that wasn't right. And it was so warm, I almost couldn't wear my down jacket. Wow. And it was the queue. I'd never walked in a queue before on an 8,000 meter peak like that. And we had to wait and wait. And there was one like big step where you have to climb like maybe three meters of steep. The snow or ice, it's really easy. But we had to wait forever for, for people to get up that. And it's like, yeah, there was so many things that were didn't feel right and it didn't look right and it wasn't right.
- [29:21]
National Park After Dark Host 2
Yeah.
- [29:21]
National Park After Dark Host 1
And when you say that it was really warm that day. The first thing that I think of with warm weather and a lot of snow on a mountain, obviously you're, you must have all started worrying about the changes in the snow that could be happening as you were walking up there.
- [29:42]
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- [30:59]
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- [31:35]
Advertisement Host 1
Fantastic.
- [31:36]
Advertisement Host 2
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- [31:56]
National Park After Dark Host 1
Going forward, we know of course that you are part of the podcast Peak Danger, which is going into the story of the tragedy that did happen that day on K2 and everything that unfolded. So we won't go into deep detail of what happens that day. People can listen there if they want to. But you were involved in the tragedy that ended up being one of the deadliest days in Mountaineering on K2. How has that affected the way that you mountaineer now?
- [32:30]
Cecilia Scogg
I could see my husband's head torch disappear into the dark. He was standing 20 meters away from me and suddenly there it feels like a big, big earthquake and it's the ice breaking from above and falling down and cuts a rope between us and he disappears. And a lot of people have asked me how I got back, how I don't climbed that mountain without him. And I've told many people I don't. I'm not sure, I don't remember remember that much. There is so many times on the way down from 8,500 meter down to base camp where I have to go in and out of rope hundreds maybe of times I have to go in and out of the rope on a rappel. And I don't remember many of them, but I remember the phone call I had to make in Camp 3 when I had to call my parents in law and tell them that they've lost their only child. Of course, the worst phone call you can take. And my. My father in law, he was prepared. The whole world knew what had been going on on that mountain. That there were 11 people missing after that night. So he told me, you have to climb safe down, you have to come back to us, because now we only have you. So that's what I did. I went home to my parents in law and I had to get out of bed because now they only had me and I wanted to take care of them. And most days I did actually get out of bed. Not all, but most days, but it wasn't me that took care of them. They took care of me. Together with Rolf, everything was possible. That's the feeling that he sent to other people around him. That everything's possible. And we knew that we were very fortunate to be able to share our life and to share all the trips, all the nights in the tent and all our dreams and our passion. We knew that we were lucky. So most days I did get out of bed, but it was difficult because he wasn't there anymore. But what I did find after the accident was that I still like to be outdoors. It's easier to breathe. I got out of bed, I got into my car and I drove out to the beaches that were outside where we used to live. And the sky was sometimes high and blue and it was easier to breathe there than inside the house. I didn't have much energy, but I was just sitting there in the sand dunes and watching the. The waves hit that beach somewhere. And I didn't know anything about the future. If I thought about it. It just made me very sad that maybe I will not even sleep one more night in a tent. I don't know what's going to happen in the future, but I knew that that next wave was going to hit that beach somewhere. So the month months went by and yeah, Rolf disappeared first of August. So normally my days would be darker and darker, but mine gradually became a little bit and a little bit lighter. But it wasn't until maybe February I decided to or I felt that gave me a hope for the future because suddenly I sat there and I was like, I do want to stay in a. I want to be in a tent. I don't want to be in a tent alone, but I want to be in a tent with somebody that I appreciate. And I want to feel like I want to wake up in the morning and head somewhere in my head or in my dreams. I want to wake up to something again and be a part of someone that's going somewhere. It doesn't have to be here or there, it's just somewhere. It doesn't matter where. That's when I asked my two of my best friends if they wanted to come with me in the spring to cross Greenland.
- [37:14]
National Park After Dark Host 2
So Greenland was the first kind of big adventure that you had since being on K2. It feels like based on your words, that it was more of an emotional, emotionally charged trip. But did you feel back at home, did you feel this sense of, you know, your passion and purpose coming alive again while you were out there?
- [37:40]
Cecilia Scogg
Absolutely. And it felt so good to be a part of the team with my two, two of my best friends to wake up because I got the place in the tent in the middle so I had them next to me and to be there. And I knew that next day I'm going to go on a 10 hour ski trip with two of my best friends. And in the evening we are gonna put up this tent again where everything has its place, where we don't have more than just what we need. And that's a feeling of freedom. And then we're gonna cook an evening meal together and then we're gonna sit in our down sleeping bags and eat some candy. It's like I knew I was gonna happened. I knew we were going to be out there. I knew that we had to work hard. And like I said, I didn't come home and I didn't take care of my parents in law, they took care of me. They wrapped me in cotton and I couldn't even go to the store and buy milk because I was scared that somebody was going to look at me and see the new me 33 year old widow. And if somebody came up to me, it was so difficult. So I just left everything in the basket and went out from the store. Because at that time my sorrow or my mourning was so public. But there in Greenland, standing in front of that heavy sled, there is nobody to wrap you in cotton. You just have to be strong, strong and be the best teammate and root for each other. And yeah, it's a good balance when you have so much because the morning or when you're in that state, it's like the body feels achy. It's like you have pain in the body. It's not only in the heart, it's the whole system but there in front of that sled to pull hard. It gave me good balance and also a feeling of being on a way to some somewhere with these two people that I appreciate.
- [40:03]
National Park After Dark Host 1
It sounds like Greenland was a huge part of healing and that you had this beautiful support system and friendships around you to do it with. Was there a reason that you decided on Greenland to be there with your friends?
- [40:21]
Cecilia Scogg
Greenland is 600 km more or less 550. It depends on which route. And so that's like more or less 20 to 25 days of skiing. And that's the kind of holiday they could have my two friends. And it's not super long, but it's long enough to kind of be there with your whole body. It's when you, you're there long enough to forget there is there is a mobile phone. It's long enough to get into that rhythm of waking up with the sun going to sleep when the sun goes down to come in the, the rhythm with the nature and your, your mind and yeah, it's like we are one cell up there working together.
- [41:12]
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- [42:25]
National Park After Dark Host 1
So you go to Greenland and after that it seems like you start traveling again. And one of your travels that you decided on was Antarctica, which you traveled across completely unassisted with a friend. Can you tell us a little bit about why you decided to go to Antarctica and what that was like.
- [42:49]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah. When we came back from Greenland, I asked Cindy Lynn if they want to go on a longer trip because I. Maybe it's an escape geographically it is for sure, but. But I wanted to get away from everything at home and everything that was difficult and just to be there in front of that heavy sled and work hard and have the wind constantly and the thoughts and the horizon and the endless wide. So I just wanted to go further. And I felt that like I can remember the trees last day days in Greenland. I was like, oh, I don't want to get there. Normally you're happy like to be at the end of. To be on the line where the finish line of the expedition, but not that time. I just wanted to continue. So that's why I asked them, do you want to go further? Do you want to go to Antarctica with me? It's 1800 kilometers, but it's really nice there.
- [43:51]
National Park After Dark Host 1
It's really nice.
- [43:53]
Cecilia Scogg
It's really nice. And there is. It's like endless as the horizon. It's the blue sky that just dives in the horizon and the horizon you will never get to. And you can just walk there forever. And it's like. It looks like a frozen ocean. But they didn't have three months of work and from their families, so they couldn't go. But one day after the accident, I find a lot of comfort in talking to my friends that I met on these high mountains. And Ryan Waters was one of them. And we talked because talking with my friends with the same passion. I didn't have to explain anything. And that was the difficult thing for me after K2 was that I came back alone without Rolf. And I had to take the responsibility for that choice. To climb one of the most dangerous mountains alone without him. And with that outcome, it was very difficult. And I understood everyone around me that had thoughts that. But you must have been prepared, must have been prepared that something like that could happen. And prepared was something that we were so prepared for every centimeter of that climb. But I don't know how you can prepare losing someone that you love. It's very difficult, I think, to prepare for something like that. So I wasn't prepared for that. But still I can understand that people must have thought that. But being. Talking to my friends, I'll around the world with the same passion. I didn't have to explain. And one day I talked to Ryan and he had been on Everest and high on the mountain he had frozen one of his Toes. And he needed a, he wanted to have like a season off from Everest. Maybe at that time he had been there like 10 times guiding. So I asked him, but would you rather go to Antarctica? Would you like to go on the most beautiful ski trip in the world? And there we can sit on the sled and you can eat everything you want as much as you like without getting fat.
- [46:17]
National Park After Dark Host 1
Very tempting.
- [46:18]
Cecilia Scogg
Very tempting. And the sun will just circle around at the same spot on the sky every day. It's sunlight in the morning, it's sunlight in the evening. It's. We can decide ourselves how much the clock is supposed to be because it doesn't matter. It's midnight sun. And he thought that sound good? He liked that. Yes. He would like to be a part of that team. So I knew he was strong. I knew that he was a person that I could spend 80, 90 days together with. A person that I could be just a little. Feels like you're just a little dot on a big map. Vulnerable together on this big ocean. And he was a person that I could absolutely see myself together with in that situation. I knew that he was like a mountain I could lean on. He was like a mountain range I could lean on, feel solid. It was just one thing. He hadn't skied that much before for.
- [47:28]
National Park After Dark Host 1
The ski trip across Antarctica.
- [47:31]
Cecilia Scogg
But that's why I tell my, my kids every day, yes, nobody knows how to do anything before they learned it. And to learn it you have to try it and then you have to practice and then practice and practice and then you will learn it. That's how. Yeah. You're not born knowing how to ski. You have to learn it. Yeah.
- [47:56]
National Park After Dark Host 1
So why not try and practice across all of Antarctica?
- [48:00]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah. Then you will have so much time practicing, you would be really good at it.
- [48:07]
National Park After Dark Host 2
And you do sound very convincing. So.
- [48:10]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah. Yes. And a lot of. I grew up thinking or having people. She wanted me maybe to think that to be a polar explorer you have to have, you have to be at least 2 meter high, you have to have beard and to spit blood. But that's not, that's not how it is. It's. If you like to ski, if you like to be out there, if you like to be a part of a team, if you like horizons, if you like snow, and if you like to work heart towards something and if you like to snuggle up in a sleeping bag and eat candy all day around, then it's for you.
- [48:55]
National Park After Dark Host 1
It's certainly. You're selling me on it. And I, I love the Sentiment of how you say, like, you're to be out in the outdoors or to go on expeditions. It's expected. You're so tall or you're a man or. And to be this woman who is out here doing these incredible feats, it's really inspiring, especially to other women who love the outdoors and who want to be out there. To see someone doing that is so exciting and it's so inspiring to.
- [49:31]
Cecilia Scogg
I hope so. It is.
- [49:32]
National Park After Dark Host 1
It really, really is. And to hear your love and your passion, it's just. I mean, it bleeds through every. All of your words. When you talk about the horizon and sleeping outdoors and doing all these things, your passion for it is contagious.
- [49:48]
Cecilia Scogg
And.
- [49:49]
National Park After Dark Host 1
Yeah, like, I. You're talking about Antarctica and I'm like, do I want to ski across Antarctica?
- [49:54]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah. And if you think that, then you've started. Yeah. Yeah, maybe. Maybe that's what you're going to do.
- [50:05]
National Park After Dark Host 1
You said it took 90 days.
- [50:08]
Cecilia Scogg
No, we. I think we were out there for almost 80. Yeah, 80 days, something. But I don't, I don't count days that in, In Pakistan, when we're there for 96. We, we. We thought we'd counted. Right. So sometimes it's, it's. We should. Maybe we should count better, but. And I, and also a lot of people, like, do you bring him skiing? He doesn't know how to ski. But I don't go out there to try to set a world record. It's not what I. And that's why I answered like, is it important? Or how is it. How does it feel to be the first? It doesn't matter. It's not what I do. That was just fortunate for me so that we could get sponsored on it. But it's not important when it's not. Yeah, it's not what I do. I don't go out there to set world record. We can, we bring more food so we can stay out longer. Because I don't go on expeditions to hurry home. When it's on expedition, I like to be right.
- [51:18]
National Park After Dark Host 1
You're there because you love it.
- [51:20]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah. And I don't have to rush to the other place. I would never go on a trip to try to be the fastest or. Yeah, I like to take as long time as possibly could.
- [51:35]
National Park After Dark Host 2
It feels like that your passion just leads you from place to place to place. So where is your interests and passions leading you next?
- [51:46]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah, I, I have two small kids and. Oh, small. They're not small anymore. They're 8 and 10. And they love to go outdoors. We have the outdoors right outside the house. And now it's not about going. I don't like to leave them for many days maximum. Like, I can be away to go climb a mountain in Norway for three days, but then I have to go back to my kids. I don't want to go on expeditions anymore. I'm very fortunate to have become a mother. And that's where I like to be. I like to be around them. But they love to be outdoors. Like this weekend. The oldest, she was like, mom, shall we go out and sleep? And we can look at the stars. Just take our sleeping bags out in the forest. It's like 50 meters to walk. And then we have a fireplace. And then we lay in our sleeping bags and we just fall asleep with the stars above us. And that's enough. That's where I want to be right now.
- [52:53]
National Park After Dark Host 1
I love that. And I love that your kids are enjoying the outdoors and are inspired by your passions for being out there. And do you imagine that they will one day want to climb some of these taller peaks? Or have they spoken about it at all?
- [53:13]
Cecilia Scogg
I don't talk about these things, tall peaks in that way. In like. Yeah, I don't sell that. Yeah. I. Rather than not go to the higher, highest peaks. But of course, if I got to do whatever, I, I decided, my path, my story. So I want them to decide there. But if they come one day and say, mom, I want to climb an 8,000 meter peak, then I'll answer with, okay, then I'm coming with you.
- [53:41]
National Park After Dark Host 1
Like, I'll be right there.
- [53:42]
Cecilia Scogg
I'll be there. And I. I was pregnant the last time I crossed Greenland. The oldest, she was in my tummy.
- [53:51]
National Park After Dark Host 1
Wow.
- [53:52]
Cecilia Scogg
So she, she knows that she's crossed Greenland. She's probably the youngest. I would say so. And, and it, and she says, mom, when I'm a little bit older, I want to do it. I want to be outside your tummy. Then let's. Let's do it. So then I love to go again if she, if she wants. But when she's ready, if she wants, then I'll be there.
- [54:17]
National Park After Dark Host 1
What a beautiful way to go back to Greenland.
- [54:19]
Cecilia Scogg
Yeah, so. But I, I won't push that. I won't say that to her. And she's not going to do it for me. She wants, she needs to do it for her. Of course. Yeah.
- [54:29]
National Park After Dark Host 2
Well, you have gone on to inspire both of us and a lot of others with your story. Not only of resilience, but of pushing forward through difficult things and accomplishing things that may seem impossible. You know, it. I'm sure the, the initial conversation with your mother and saying all of these different goals that you wanted to accomplish. So for those listening with dreams of their own, whether they be summiting the highest peaks or whatever seems difficult for them, do you have any advice for accomplishing what the heart wants, even if it seems difficult on paper? Or maybe their support system isn't super understanding of what they would like to do with their life?
- [55:18]
Cecilia Scogg
Well, I think the most difficult part is because I meet so many. I mean, I meet people that say, but you've done that because that's easy for you, because you have this and that. And those people will never go on an expedition because they. There is, I mean, there is two things you can like, say I want to go on a trip because I want to do this and that, or you can say I want to go on a trip, but I can't do because. And that's the most. I mean, if you have decided, if you have a dream and you like hold on to that dream with both your hands, then you're a long way. Don't let that dream go. If it's important to you, you know it. If it's important, if it comes back to your head like over and over again, hold on to it. Because some of these dreams I think it's, it's important to pursue because we only live once and we are here now. And you make your own story.
- [56:24]
National Park After Dark Host 2
Thank you so much for sharing that and thank you for coming on and sharing parts of your story with us and we really appreciate it. You are an incredible person and thank you for being open to your story.
- [56:37]
Cecilia Scogg
Thank you so much.
- [56:39]
National Park After Dark Host 1
Well, thank you everyone so much for tuning in to this week's podcast. If you're interested in learning more about the K2 accident that happened in 2008, you can check it out on Extreme Peak Danger wherever you listen to podcasts.
- [56:52]
National Park After Dark Host 2
And remember to enjoy the view, but watch your back. Bye, everyone.
- [56:56]
Cecilia Scogg
Bye.
- [56:57]
National Park After Dark Host 2
Thank you for joining us again this week. If you love National Park After Dark and want to hear exclusive bonus stories, join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Patreon subscribers have access to our National Park After Dark book club, live streams, Discord, and much more. If you prefer to watch our episodes, video episodes are now available on YouTube. If you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe on your favorite listening podcast platform. And to follow along with all our adventures, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X at national park after dark.