Lauren and Thorsten met by pure chance in a mine in Italy and bonded over their shared love of Norway, snow, and adventure, and their common goal to one day ski on an Arctic expedition. Being at similar points on their journey towards adventuring, the decision to team up in order to support and motivate each other was easy.
They quickly discarded their existing individual plans for guided tours in the Arctic in favour of planning a ski-crossing of Norway’s Hardangervidda early in 2019. This expedition was meant as a launch pad for future endeavours, such as the crossing of Greenland in 2020. In early 2020, the world was flipped upside down by the emergence of Covid-19, so the pair had to put any Polar plans on ice for over two years now.
The name Team Fram is a nod to their heroes, the famous Norwegian explorers Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen, and a reminder to always keep pushing forwards, literally and figuratively.
After suffering from ME for most of her 20s, Lauren rediscovered her love of the outdoors at 30. Spurred on by what she considers her wasted years, she’s jumping on every adventure she can: sailing, climbing, kayaking, hiking and ski expeditions. She knows the importance of making each day count, and not taking your body for granted.
2018 was a year of learning for Lauren, when she qualified in Outdoor First Aid, MiDAS minibus driving and RYA Day Skipper. She also spend her first summer crewing the Havhingsten Viking Raiding ship as it sailed home to Roskilde. 2019 continued that learning, as she trained to become a Mountain Leader, and Qualified as a Guide Leader. Her dream is to become an Arctic guide.
Lauren is passionate about encouraging other women into the outdoors and volunteers for MY Great Escape, supporting survivors of Domestic Abuse to conquer mountains, and for Girlguiding to help inspire the next generation of adventurers.
Lauren is a dual British and Irish citizen and lives in south-west England with her husband and their 3 cats.
Thorsten discovered his love for the Arctic on a cruise north of the Arctic circle in November 2016, where he first learned about Fridtjof Nansen and the first Fram expedition. He was fascinated by Nansen’s ability to tackle seemingly unsolvable problems from new angles, and by his determination to reach his goals, while still maintaining a level head and knowing what lay out of his reach. On a subsequent visit to Oslo he visited the Fram museum and had the chance to participate in a leadership training by Arctic explorer and sailor Thorleif Thorleifsson, which inspired him to pursue the adventure of experiencing an Arctic expedition firsthand. Thorsten’s goal is to cross Greenland and experience the Arctic ice shelf, just like his idol Nansen did.
At the beginning of 2018 Thorsten went skiing for the first time in his life, and went to Norway to partake in an Arctic expedition training course. He is a hiking and wilderness trekking guide for the ÖAV (Austrian Alpine Society) Section Edelweiß is Vienna. Thorsten has extensive training in outdoors first aid and rescue management, and has attended courses on psychology in extreme environments as well as expedition leadership. In 2019, he skied across lake Møsvatn in January.
Thorsten currently lives in Vienna, Austria, together with his wife, and his lazy dog Socke. In his day job, he is working as a freelance coach and trainer.