LARS EBBESEN
Lars is our multitool. His deep understanding and ability to grasp the reality of any moment on his own and others' expeditions are gold.
His ability to combine design, strategy, communication, motivation, and coaching is unrivaled and has made us stand out from other companies.
He has never wanted to be a boss, just wanting to focus on progress, but he wants his voice heard and respected – and take it from there.
— Børge Ousland
NORWEGIAN POLAR EXPLORER
• MULTI TOOL • EXPEDITIONS EXPERT • CONSULTANT •
WEATHER-WIZ • GUIDE-FATHER
How Lars ended up as PolarLArs was probably down to confusion.
Wrong turns, and the inability to say no.
As a kid, being dyslexic before the word was invented, he hated school and preferred outdoor play and friends. Preferably with Petter. It did little to impress teachers, but made him a pretty strong skier and enhanced his curiosity (search for excuses…).
The travel bug came in his teens, as he once wanted to punish his parents by saying he was going on InterRail. The plot failed as they thought it a great idea, so he duly had to go. But it really did awaken his travel bug. And lots more was to come.
On his way, later in life, to becoming an art director/strategic graphic designer, he spent time in England, France, and the US before settling in Oslo and enjoying the crazy, 100% creativity-driven eighties. It was interrupted by long spells backpacking and touring the world, before he got his first taste of Greenland and polar adventure at the very start of the nineties.
Soon he dropped out of the advertising industry, became a freelancer, did Spitsbergen north to south with friends as the first, and in 1994 reached the South Pole with Odd Harald Hauge and Cato Zahl Pedersen.
It was a time when he fully felt how much energy the polar adventures added to daily life. At the time he was a freelance designer, sat next to Erling Kagge when his publishing world started, created Hvitserk with Sjur Mørdre and Martin Gudbrandsgård, while playing with Børge Ousland and doing many of his books. It was a wild and intense time. But it defined his belief that a smile and fun go a very long way. The calendars he did with Odd Harald, the expedition logos, and tone of voice were a clear message that either you smile and are with us, or you mull and find your own gloom-team.
HAVING BEEN INVOLVED IN HUNDREDS OF TRIPS AND EXPEDITIONS, HE HAS A UNIQUE GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING AND AWARENESS
After 10 years with Hvitserk, he moved over to Børge and his polar world, missing the early at-the-edge feeling he enjoyed with Sjur. And he is still here. His hair has turned grey, but his passion for helping anyone reach an impossible personal goal is burning as strong as ever, doing weather, 24/7, motivation, design, sponsor support, coaching, and guidance. Having been involved in hundreds of trips and expeditions, he has a unique global understanding and awareness.
LARS SECRET ADVICE :
"THE SHORTEST DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO WAYPOINTS IS LAUGHTER. "
Highlights:
Guess I never noted it all down. Always more interested in the tickling feeling of the next adventure than being content with the comfort of what is behind me.
But some highlights spring to mind:
• A portrait taken with a 24mm lens in India in 1984 – suddenly understanding respect, distance and humbleness.
• Standing up in the double kayak behind Tove (wife) and taking photographs of beautiful icebergs in East Greenland.
• The magnitude and luxury of going all the way to the South Pole without any communication is still growing with every minute in our day and age.
• Waking up at the monastery next to Everest BC in Tibet and seeing that mountain for the first time – having until then believed it was only a big stone.
• The morning sun breaking through stormy clouds an early morning as the dogsled fought through wild, drifting snow, heading east on the Greenland Inland Ice.
• Still believing the “Unarmed to the South Pole”, again with Odd Harald, is the best designed, and most beautifully printed book I have ever done – and all the while being the first in use of humor on what was (deemed) an impossible journey.
• Sitting in the snow high up at Hallingskarvet, drinking solbærtoddy (blackcurrant toddy), suddenly having a herd of reindeer passing slowly by.
• Sailing across the Atlantic, alone at the helm at night and seeing dolphins lighting up bioluminescent plankton with long, glowing trails behind them.
• After harbouring a dream for more than 30 years, and then last year suddenly having the chance to ski among the stunning mountains in Queen Maud Land with close friend Roland, and along a route never skied before. It brings tears to my eyes.
• Having had the chance and privelage to do something on all the eight continents (Polar Sea being no 8) on this amasing Globe.
• Having twins with Tove – of all things born on the sacred 14th December. Maybe my polar life was destined to happen after all – and not just a wrong turn?
