Wayfare
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The outfit

Eleven people, one yard, and a floor we put your kit on.

Wayfare began in 2009 with a van, a rope and the Lyngen traverse. It is now fourteen departures a year across six ranges, and it is still small enough that the person who answers your email is the person who will be on the rope in front of you.

How it started, briefly

We were guiding other people's itineraries and disagreeing with most of them.

Sindre spent six seasons working for outfits that sold nine-day trips with three-day acclimatisation, summit bonuses in the guide contract, and a helicopter option that removed the part of the route the rest of the route depended on. All of it was legal, most of it was normal, and the accident rate across the industry reflected it.

So the rules came first and the company came second, which is an unusual order and is the reason several of them read like they were written in irritation. They were. We have not softened any of them in seventeen years, and twice we have lost a whole season's bookings on one range rather than bend one.

Who guides

Seven guides. No portraits — this theme ships no images at all.

Six carry the IFMGA carnet and one is an aspirant guide who is also our expedition medic. Everybody here has worked a full season in at least two of the six ranges, and nobody guides a route they have not been on as a second guide first.

  • Sindre Aune

    Founder, IFMGA · since 2009

    Greenland · Tien Shan · Lyngen

    Started the outfit with one van and the Lyngen traverse. Has crossed Nuussuaq nine times and turned back on two of them, which he brings up more often than the seven.

  • Marit Haugen

    IFMGA · assessment · since 2013

    Ullstinden · Torngats

    Writes every qualifying-week assessment and has given about four hundred of them. Tells people 'not yet' to their face on day seven rather than by email a fortnight later.

  • Ada Johnsen

    IFMGA · sea leader · since 2014

    Hornsund · Iceland · Lyngen

    The only person here who guides on water and on ice to the same standard. Keeps the Hornsund weather log by hand and has nine seasons of it in a dry bag.

  • Rune Sæther

    IFMGA · since 2015

    Lyngen · Iceland

    Grew up in Lyngseidet and has skied the peninsula since he was nine. Runs the second guide slot on most Lyngen weeks and the kit check on all of them.

  • Kari Lund

    Aspirant guide · expedition medic · since 2019

    All six ranges

    Carries the medical kit and writes the pre-trip medical questions. Has evacuated two people in six years and is candid that both were avoidable at the enquiry stage.

  • Tove Berg

    IFMGA · since 2020

    Iceland · Lyngen

    Came from twelve years of Icelandic highland guiding and knows the Dyngjusandur better than anybody here. Sells gaiters at the trailhead at cost and is unapologetic about it.

  • Pelle Nordli

    IFMGA · since 2021

    Greenland · Tien Shan

    Second guide on the long hauls. Keeps the fuel and food arithmetic for both crossings, which is why nobody has ever run short on either.

The other four: Ingrid Moen on the desk since 2012, who reads every insurance document that comes in; Halvor Ek in the workshop, who owns the store room everything gets lent from; Nils Dahl on logistics, permits and the charter flights; and Siri Aune, who does the accounts and who wrote the cancellation terms further down this page.

How we prepare a party

Four steps between an enquiry and a departure

  1. 01

    The enquiry, read by a guide

    Not a sales desk and not a form-handler. Whoever leads the route you asked about reads what you wrote, and replies inside three working days. About a third of those replies recommend a different route.

  2. 02

    A forty-minute call, before any money

    We go through what you have actually done, in specifics — which routes, which weight, how long ago, and what went badly. Nothing is charged until after this call, and roughly one in nine ends with us sending someone to the Ullstinden week first.

  3. 03

    The paperwork that is not paperwork

    Insurance document read line by line by Ingrid, a medical on our form for anything Grade IV, and for the hard routes a training weekend in Tromsø in the February beforehand. Two days dragging a tyre up Fløya filters more people than the medical does.

  4. 04

    Ninety minutes on the yard floor

    Everything you own, out of the bag, in rows, with your name on a card. We pull what is wrong, lend you what is missing and charge nothing for the loan. It is also, quietly, how we meet you.

The money, plainly

Four things about how we are paid

Written by Siri, who does the accounts, and deliberately placed on the About page rather than seven clicks down in a terms document.

  1. 01

    Nobody here earns a summit bonus

    Not a krone, on any route, at any grade. It is the cheapest safety measure in this industry and a surprising number of outfits have still not taken it.

  2. 02

    No commission, from anyone

    Not from lodges, not from charter operators, not from the shop across the street we send people to for boots. If we recommend something it is because it works.

  3. 03

    Twenty-five per cent deposit, and it is at risk

    Balance at 120 days. Inside 120 days the deposit is gone, because that is when we commit to boats, permits and guides, and we would rather say so here than in small print.

  4. 04

    When we cancel, you get the route at cost

    If we call a departure off — weather, ice, a guide down — you get a full refund of anything not already spent on your behalf, plus the same route in a later season at our cost rather than our price. Eleven parties have taken that offer.

Come in

The yard is a real place and you are welcome in it.

Sjøgata 12, Tromsø, behind the chandlery. There is a kettle, a wall of maps with pins in it, and usually somebody repacking a pulk. If you are in Tromsø and thinking about a route, email first and come and stand in it — it tells you more than this website can.

Where
Sjøgata 12, Tromsø
Hours
Mon–Fri, 08:00 to 16:00. In the field we answer once a day, by satellite
Email
basecamp@wayfare-expedition.example
Phone
+47 77 55 0142

Next step

Tell a guide what you have done.

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