Adventurer Steffen Skjottelvik’s death last year in northern Manitoba was a tragedy that has become the catalyst for a documentary, a book and a foundation to unite First Nations, Norway and nature.
“Something ended in the Hayes River, but something important also started,” said Christian Dyresen, executive director of the Steffen of Norway Foundation, which launched last September, shortly after the 29-year-old Skjottelvik’s body was found.
Skjottelvik arrived in Canada in April 2023 and set up camp in northern Ontario, off the southern shore of Hudson Bay, where he planned out a 300-kilometre trek on foot from Fort Severn, Ont., to York Factory, Man.
He began shifting closer to Peawanuck, a nearby Cree community, as he got to know the people there.
That’s where he fell in love with a woman named Lilyann Mack and First Nations culture, and chose to stay longer than planned, said Dyresen and Skjottelvik’s mom, Gry.
“He wanted wilderness, more wilderness than we have in Norway,” Gry told CBC’s Information Radio this week.
“When we flew over the landscape, and when we have got to fishing trips where he went, I can understand [why] he loved it.”
Dyresen and Gry, who were in Peawanuk on July 17 to mark Skjottelvik’s 30th birthday, discovered he had been learning the Cree language.
They, along with Skjottelvik’s dad, Atle, were in Ontario and Manitoba from July 12-23 to spend time in Peawanuck and areas around York Factory.
Skjottelvik’s family first made the journey to those places last year, just days after his death, to partially retrace his steps and meet the people and communities that meant so much to him.
This time around, they were joined by NRK, Norway’s national public broadcaster, which is producing a feature-length documentary about Skjottelvik, and a team from the New York Times, which is working on a feature story.
A book is also in the works, to complete “the storytelling that Steffen began based on his experience and his love for Canada and the First Nations,” Dyresen said.
Skjottelvik made video recordings of his experience, intending to create a documentary. He had some 30 hours of recordings, right up to two minutes before he drowned, Dyresen said.
Steffen’s recordings were found with his gear, “and none of it was damaged,” said Dyresen.
So his documentary is being completed for him. His footage, and his parents’ trips to Canada, will be the essence of it, Dyresen said.
“Everyone has been so kind. Many have a lot of stories to tell us about our boy,” said Gry. “To see where he walked and to meet the people he loved is important for our grieving.”
‘We made it’
After his stay in Peawanuk, Skjottelvik set out with his two dogs, Togo and Bay, on July 25, 2025, planning to reach York Factory National Historic Site on Aug. 15.
He travelled by canoe to Fort Severn, where he began a journey through challenging terrain dominated by waist-deep muskeg and wildlife including polar bears.
Skjottelvik created a Facebook page called Steffen’s Great Canadian Journey and checked in regularly with RCMP.
The RCMP’s last contact with him was Aug. 13, when he arrived at a camp about 40 kilometres east of York Factory. Skjottelvik said he had lost one of his dogs, Bay, to a wolf attack.
By Aug. 18, an all-out search was underway.
A helicopter pilot contracted by Fort Severn First Nation found Skjottelvik’s body along the Hayes River on Aug. 24. An autopsy confirmed that he drowned.
His final video recording shows him standing on an island in the middle of the Hayes “just a few hundred metres from [York Factory],” Dyresen said.
The historic Hudson’s Bay Company warehouse stands in the background.
“You can see how close he was,” Dyresen said, adding his last words were to his travel companion: “We made it, Togo boy, we made it.”
Togo was found on the other side of the river at York Factory, staring into the water. Bay had actually survived the wolf encounter and made it back to Fort Severn.
The dogs now live in Peawanuck.
Skjottelvik’s body was laid to rest in Holmsbu, Norway, following a memorial service in Winnipeg in September.
The foundation created in his name will hold its first nature camp for young people this fall in Norway, Dyresen said. He is now working to find Canadian sponsors and establish a cultural exchange, particularly between First Nations communities and Holmsbu.
“I hope that more children in the future can … use nature for therapy. If we want to take care of the Earth, we have to know the Earth,” said Gry.
She also hopes people remember her son “as a humble guy from Norway that … loved animals, loved nature, and he loved people.”
