About us

Since 2016, I've led absolute beginners through the great boreal forest, from it's South in Canada to where it gives way to the tundra, 500km inside the Arctic Circle in Northern Lapland, and developed a training program that enabled them to do it.

And I started as one of them ...

When my Finnish mother-in-law died of cancer then my wife got it too, it hit me like a truck.

She told me, don’t put it off, do something I've always wanted to do.

For me, that was to learn bushcraft and explore wilderness areas by canoe, so I did some training, put a team together and raised money for cancer research by crossing 300km of Northern Lapland in 13 days.

Then I did it in 14 days in Canada. And again in Lapland. 

It was epic and brutal. I’d go out, make mistakes, go out again, make a different set of mistakes. 

In short, I didn't know what I didn't know.

Invaluable training from top professionals in the fields of Canoeing, Bushcraft & Survival and Wilderness Medicine was critical on this journey, but it's delivered in specialist silos and no one will join the dots for you: it was only by experiencing the many challenges the wilderness threw at us that I learned what I actually needed. 

So I started the company I wished I had existed when I started out.

Then in 2022, more trucks: a minor leg operation caused a blood clot in my left lung, I discovered I had kidney cancer, and underwent major surgery.

I felt like a crushed insect, but 3 months later I'd got myself fit enough to return to lead a trip in Canada again.

In 2023 I piloted our first Pakcanoe trip in Finland then led our flagship, utterly jaw-dropping 110km trip through the heart of Temagami. 

I started Erämaassa Canoeing to get you to these less-known wilderness areas we discovered, by air whenever possible, and share what we learned, so you too can follow your dreams.

I hope you can join us, but if you're planning your own trips, you can learn how to avoid some of the mistakes I did by booking a free consultation call here. 

Canoe Leader

White-water safety & rescue

Royal Geographical Society Off-Site Safety Management

Remote Medical Responder (Wilderness First Responder)

Prolonged Field Care

Deer Stalking Certificate Level 1 (incl. Food Hygiene)

'Old Woodlorean' -

- Fundamental Bushcraft & Survival

 - Wilderness Expedition Skills (private course)

 - Bush Chef

- Journeyman (survival/starvation exercise)

- Tracking in Namibia

- Camp Craft (Axe)

Royal Signals -

- Special Communications - remote HF radio and satellite communications

- Airmobile Light Infantry - VHF, HF & UHF radio and working with helicopters.

PADI Divemaster / Assistant Instructor 

Rescue, wound care and casevac experience

Basic Finnish & French. 

Travelled to 156 destinations in 66 countries.

I've forgotten more than I know.