{"id":335,"date":"2026-07-07T09:52:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rambleon.ca\/talesntunes\/?p=335"},"modified":"2026-07-07T09:52:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T16:52:21","slug":"outsider-an-old-man-a-mountain-and-a-search-for-a-hidden-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rambleon.ca\/talesntunes\/outsider-an-old-man-a-mountain-and-a-search-for-a-hidden-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Outsider: An Old Man, a Mountain, and a Search for a Hidden Past"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outsider – An Old Man, a Mountain, and the Search for a Hidden Past<\/em> is the story
\nof Dag Aabye, told by journalist Brett Popplewell.\u00a0\u00a0 Dag was born in Norway and was orphaned at the end of World War II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He was brought up by foster parents, but the shadow of suspicion is that he was the child of a Nazi soldier and a German sympathizer.\u00a0\u00a0 He would have been the heir to an estate in Norway, but he left and traveled to Chile, the United States, and Canada to ski and to work teaching skiing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He skied some extreme slops and he is sometimes thought of as the father of extreme skiing.\u00a0\u00a0 He married, had children, and worked as a logger,\u00a0 but in the last 20 years, he has been divorced and estranged from his family.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He lives in a bus in the bush on the slopes of Silver Star Mountain near Vernon.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He turned to ultramarathoning and ran for hours every day, competing in the Ultra Death Race as the oldest competitor.\u00a0\u00a0 At 78 he still runs on trails every day and lives in the bush without electricity, running water, or any other services.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He keeps detailed journals and finds a positive spin to every day’s challenges.<\/p>\n

The story is a journalist’s enquiry into his life.\u00a0 The author befriends Dag, reads his journals, interviews him and his family members, travels to Norway, and does heritage work to find out the truth of his parents and his beginnings.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is well-written and an easy read.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On a personal level, I had seen Dag running at Silver Star and possibly in ultra races but didn’t know anything about him.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I had run ultramarathons too.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I had known and run with other runners who ran long distances every day, but we all went back to our warm homes afterwards, not to an unheated bus.<\/p>\n

Although Dag is somewhat unique in his view of the world, I question the wisdom of some of the decisions he had made.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He claims to be happy, though, and there are many people who have a home, an income, and a social life that aren’t. \u00a0 \u00a0 Sometimes the story is a little unsettling. \u00a0 \u00a0 Maybe that’s a good thing.<\/p>\n

A book worth reading. 4.5\/5 stars.<\/p>\n

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