Norway, Skiing and The Study of Happiness

I recently returned from Norway to explore the origins of skiing and discover what makes this country the happiest in the world. When I arrived I was immediately calmed by the low pressure environment, lots of green space, modern infrastructure, and sophisticated Scandinavians. The country is heavily forested with a collage of fjords, lakes and rolling hills and mountains. The air is fresh and the people have a wonderful genuine glow of contentment.

I started off in Fredrikstad a small town south of Oslo. A ferry runs up and down the main river allowing people to traverse the town by boat, like modern Vikings. After all, this is the land of the Lords of the Oceans. The Vikings discovered, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland in North America 500 years before Christopher Columbus sailed. They also ventured east through the Mediterranean and the inland rivers to Russia and Asia. 

I then went exploring the roots of modern skiing in Morgedal in the township of Telemark. A long drive north and a car ferry across the Oslo Fjord took me to a most outstanding ski museum explaining the entire evolution of skiing whose roots can be traced to one wild boy named Sondre Norheim. A most energetic youth, he could not stay inside the tale is told. His mind would always drift to the outdoor mountains and snow. I am sure that today's educators  would have drugged him for having ADHD. He managed to channel this healthy energy into skiing and ski design.

 

Morgedal, is covered with large rolling hills, and travel in winter was by cross country skis secured by a straw toe strap. Boots were packed with straw for extra ankle support. Every Sunday the town would go out and play in the snow and ski cross country and downhill. Sondre invented the first heel hold down binding for the ski boot and initiated downhill turns called loms, which later became known as slalom. He would develop his jumping skills by getting air off the roofs of houses. He became admired by the kids for his skills, but angered by his wife, as he could not make a decent living!

 He started landing and turning with his rear leg back, creating the telemark turn. He competed in the first national ski jumping contest at the age of 43 in Oslo and won with his great distance and grace. This began the start of ski jumping and the Norwegian dual sport of cross country skiing and jumping. Further advances led to larger jumps eventually developing into ski flying such as at the Holmenkollen in Oslo. The physical performance of the modern Norwegian Olympic ski team is a special testament to their deep love of skiing that makes this land unique. They say that Norwegians are born with skis on their feet. Sondre and other Norwegians such as Stein Eriksen eventually emigrated to America where innovation created the chair lift,  Lange plastic ski boots, Head metals skis and heel hold down bindings. Stein Eriksen was also the first man to do a flip on skis and could be credited with the creation of freestyle skiing. Modern downhill skiing and all its beauty began on the designs from Norway.

In Canada a Norwegian mountaineer named Jackrabbit-Johannsen developed most of the cross country trails in the Laurentian mountains north of Montreal and the eastern townships. He lived to 111 years of age and contributed his great health to his cross country skiing. The southern Laurentians were the epicenter of skiing in Canada and the first rope tow was built in at Mount St. Saveur, Quebec. The Laurentian Ski Museum is located in the town of Mount St. Saveur. Mont Saint-Sauveur is the endpoint of where the author completed the first Guiness World record for most ski hills skied in one day event in 1979.

One unique feature which I have been trying to quantify is the relationship between high performance and spirituality. I have found that high performance is often based on a spiritual power that differentiates mediocrity from excellence. It is spiritual energy that makes the student of an art work extra hard to achieve Flow and Zen. I discovered that in Norse Mythology, there are two ski gods  named Ullr (right below) and ski goddess Skade Goddess of Skiing (left below). She was married to the main God Odin and had many children with him the fable says. This may account for the extra determination Norwegians give to their cross country and downhill skiing.  In many of our ski writings and movies we talk about praying for snow to the ski gods. Well the ski gods live in Norway, and this makes it all the more clearer why Norwegians, aka the Attacking Vikings are so aggressive in their ski performance. Athletes such as Aksel Lund Svindal who suffered serious injuries yet still return to win gold medals at the Olympics in 2018. With a small population, the Attacking Vikings manage to plunder more gold and silver medals than any other country of its size. This might explains their unique performance in snow sports.

 

In my interviews of a wide range of Norwegians I found that when asked if they were happy, they remarkably all said yes. However, some of them not only spoke it but they exuded this beautiful glow of positive energy, very different than our Canadian reserve. I felt like I was travelling in a giant Ikea store, with the clean and natural Nordic designed houses and well kept roads and infrastructure and names like Sven and Ingar. One disappointment though is the beautiful blonde Scandinavians are disappearing quickly with the advent of the European Union. The in migration of non Norwegians is changing the blonde factor of this society.

To put structure to the happiness quotient I applied the Mazlow's Hierarchy of Needs pyramid. This design gave the reasons for happiness research more structure. Norwegians feel safe in their country and they respect the government and consider the laws fair. The King of Norway is loved and admired by the population.  The Norwegian government provide social assistance for the sick and  substantial unemployment benefits, quality universal health care and even pay for university outside of Norway if you aspire to go. The Mazlow's pyramid shows levels as below:

From the above one can see that the first two levels the Physiological and Safety needs are met by the social democratic government structure. In addition this society creates a sense of belonging and love needs by taking care of each other. With one of the highest per capita incomes in the world this also contributes to their happiness, as there is less problems to worry about survival. They are blessed with an abundance of natural resources such as oil and gas, and the profits are invested into the countries pension plan, so all Norwegians are taken care of in retirement. Pretty good social benefit program for the modern Vikings. Add to that 5 weeks of annual paid vacation to enjoy life, and you start to become really happy!

The country is small with only 5,000,000 people with a tradition of being outdoors skiing in the winter and hiking in the summer, with groups of friends. This is usually done on Sundays and is part of the social fabric of the community. Most Norwegians live in small towns close to their natural landscape and they take advantage of the beauty of the outdoors. This connection to nature and having a face to face relationship with friends in the outdoors is the special sauce that makes Norwegians so happy in my opinion.

To achieve esteem needs, the government supports higher education and will support foreign education so that the people bring back their skills and reinvest it into their country. In a democratic country better decisions are made by an educated citizen, and the investment in education creates a more astute socially democratic country. Another theory is that self actualization is accomplished by the social support a society that helps one another. The concept of Adam Smith's Invisible Hand is that in man's selfish pursuit of his needs there will be optimal distribution of resources in the economy. Unfortunately this is also a recipe for individual greed which creates loneliness and unhappiness. Whereas when everyone is a part of something greater and works for the common good this creates socialization, community and happiness. Like a giant camp for outdoors people this social structure combined with healthy living and beautiful women makes everyone happy.

The final unique feature about Scandinavia is the high level of emancipation of women. In order to have a happy life you need a happy wife.  When the Vikings went off to plunder, they left the women at home to take care of the farm and the children, and the men gave them great respect for managing the family. Perhaps that is why they are so independent and happy.

 Below is an original Viking Ship that was buried in 890 AD according to Norse traditions and excavated in 1880 for the Viking Ship Museum (Oslo). These vessels were used to cross the oceans and up rivers as far as Asia. Their shallow hull, tall masts and 30 rows of oars allowed them to travel without wind or with up to 15 knots per hour. The dual bows allowed them to reverse quickly in case of hitting a iceberg etc. Great fear was created to see a fleet of Vikings approaching your coast. The empire lasted until about 1050 AD, after which they converted to Christianity and became peaceful. Some of the greatest adventurers such as Ronald Amundsen polar explorer and Leif Erikson first explorer to reach North America are from Norway.  

In either case Norway is a wonderful land, with friendly people, who are social, outdoorsy and happy. They have great goat cheese and beer too. The question may be answered that they are happy because they have their safety, security, physiological and social needs met and they have the time and income so they can afford to go skiing and hiking in the beautiful outdoors with friends.  We all need to learn from Norwegian happiness to make this world a better place.

Skaal!


The Adventure Guy