Winter and the payoff season. Location: Norway. Photo: Jan-Erik Blomberg

It was a sunny late summer day, and I had parked my VW Vanagon Syncro in the far corner of a parking lot on top of a local ski hill just outside of Helsinki. I wanted to get good photos of the van to go with a sales ad.

After spending a decade working on the van with a goal of turning it into the ultimate adventure vehicle, the financial realities of life finally caught up with me. You know, the usual: wife, two kids, house mortgage.

As I was working on finding the right angles for the shots, I saw a person on the other side of the parking lot getting out of a white VW T4 van with a sizable puffy beige dog and walking towards me. As he got closer, I recognized him: it was Jan-Erik Blomberg, or better known as Blumi, as his widely used nickname goes.

I had probably met him the first time during a free ski competition in the early 2000´s in Lapland, where we both participated at the time. Then, later, as he started working as the editor in chief for the only remaining ski magazine in Finland, Edge, I was in contact with him as a freelance writer.

In the context of the Finnish freeride scene, Blumi seems to be almost ubiquitous: he co-starred, shot and edited the TV-series Travelers With Skis, works both as a ski magazine editor and Youtube content producer, and continues to be a sponsored skier/Finnish agent for the ski brand Armada. This fall, with the help of some friends, he revived a formerly annual Freeride event, which had been on a several year hiatus.

LIFESTYLE CHOICES

Unlike me, Blumi has followed a different path and carved himself a lifestyle, which allows him the freedom to ski for most of the winter in big mountains, both in Lyngen Norway – his annual destination, and in places like Revelstoke Canada, where he spent several weeks during last winter.

Being free of the constraints of modern life has required some sacrifices though: since last winter, he´s lived in his van full-time without a permanent address. But is it really a sacrifice or is that just how the society wants you to think?

I met Blumi over a cup of coffee one November morning in a small café outside of the center of Helsinki - not too far from a beach parking lot location, where he´s overnighted every now and then.

Occasional overnighting place in Helsinki by the Baltic Sea. No snow during the early November in 2025.

When I walked in, he was already sitting by a round table next to the large windows with his dog Jedi. He had woken up early in his van and driven to the café. Waking up every morning in your van is different to what normal people experience: the space is limited and it´s cold and dark outside during the winter. Sure, on a holiday, it can be an exciting experience, but when you live permanently in your van, there is no return to the comforts of your own bed, warm shower, controlled temperature and humidity, not to mention spacious living quarters.

Still, living in your van is constantly glorified on social media with pictures depicting couples enjoying their morning coffee under the covers in the back of their van, or a someone working remotely from his/her laptop from the van, while being parked right next to a world class climbing, hiking or mountain biking destination.

One for the social media: the Sprinter parked somewhere in northern Norway. Photo: Jan-Erik Blomberg

When I ask Blumi what he thinks about this kind of romanticizing, he starts laughing: “I´m free and brave, but I lack the good-looking chick” (for the posts). He then adds how vanlife in reality is everything but the glamorized image it´s made to be: “it´s mainly about optimizing your space and controlling the temperature – in July it was fricking hot, because the air was not moving and during the winter you try to insulate as much as you can to retain the heat inside.” He continues describing the winter conditions to living inside a cardboard box: “the windows are covered and you rely on only artificial lighting.”

Still, Blumi doesn´t see to many downsides to living in a van at the moment: “the bed could be wider, but if you prioritise skiing, then everything else is secondary”, he says. He also thinks it´s a question of one’s personality, some people can handle it better than others.

Nowadays, working remotely is relatively easy, but how about hygiene - do you have to be a dirtbag to live in a van? “I’ve got a season pass for a climbing gym, where there´s not only a shower, but also a turkish sauna, so no”, Blumi answers. (It might not be so easy on the road, when parked by a random trailhead in Lyngen, but that’s another story.)

Happy man inside the box. Photo: Jan-Erik Blomberg

When asked if his chosen lifestyle had ever made him feel isolated from the society, Blumi´s negative answer is fast and prompt: “I wake up and go to work, or work from home, and then meet people on my spare time, like everyone else”.

He also questions how many people pop over my place spontaneously these days anyways, and I have to admit that not many. Social media has given us a false sense of being connected with your friends daily, when in reality, you are only seeing their posts.

Best après ski in the parking lot. Photo: Jan-Erik Blomberg

BACKGROUND

Blumi´s ski background goes way back to when he was a member of the Finnish national B mogul skiing team. He climbs and skateboards but says that all the other activities he does during the off-season are there to maintain his fitness level, and to keep him busy, when he can´t ski. It´s all about skiing.

As a freeskier, he´s skied well over a decade for Armada, seeing no need to change a brand and skis he likes: “it´s also easier to sell products you genuinely believe in”, he adds.

During our chat, Blumi receives a call from a Finnish ski resort about the delivery schedule for a set of Armada skis he´s sold. As an agent, he´s the middleman between the brand and the end-client. We also witness a middle-aged grey-haired man in a beige Kashmir-coat park his Audi on the sidewalk and walking in for his coffee. Blumi gets up and walks over to the guy, telling him that he cannot park on the sidewalk. He strikes me as someone with strong ideals.

Those ideals have probably shaped Blumi´s lifestyle. He says that he has gravitated towards jobs that you can do somewhere else (outside of the office). Besides everything else, Blumi has one more side hustle, which is editing: “I´m a somewhat creative person and I like to tell stories and build new stuff”, he says.

Blumi the skier honing his craft. Location: Norway. Photo: Jan-Erik Blomberg

Originally, he studied photography in Muotoiluinstituutti (a well-known art school in Lahti) but has never really worked as a photographer. Instead, he found his niche in editing and was doing tv-work already during his studies. When I ask him, where he finds the time for the editing work, his reply is blunt: “it´s not very complicated, I´ve done editing work for 30 years, it all depends how you see it (the workload).” Having worked with him briefly on the KOTA2® brand video, I know he can produce world-class footage on a tight schedule.

Blumi´s vanlife started more spontaneously though, after separating with his then girlfriend around 6-7 years ago: “I bought my first car, a Mercedes Benz A during that autumn and arranged my life so that I didn´t have to return to Finland during the winter.”

His next vehicle was a VW T4, a noticeable improvement from the tiny Mercedes, but it wasn´t until he bought the current Sprinter van two years ago that he found what he was looking for. It had already been fully converted as a camper van and was big enough for his skis, gear and dog. Blumi has now lived in the Sprinter full time since last winter.

THE PAYOFF

As someone, who has dedicated his life for skiing and is living permanently in a van, the off-season can be challenging. Sure, you can go climbing and skateboarding and hang out with your friends, but somewhere in the back of your mind, you´re always waiting for the winter to start – the payoff time. It´s the season when the 9-to-5 grinding office rats scroll their social media feed and watch the posts featuring jagged mountains, fast skiing and beautiful locations in awe, and maybe a hint of envy.

For the spring, Blumi´s go-to-place, as with many other Nordic freeskiers, has been the Lyngen Alps in Norway. Majestic mountains, wild couloirs, sea views and easy access from the roads have made the place sometimes too popular though, and he is contemplating on moving to another area this winter: “It would be nice to ski in a place, where you could hike up a run and be relaxed, rather than feeling the urge to race down”, he says. When asked about potential other areas, he lists Narvik, Stranda and Sunmore. “The Lofoten Islands has great couloirs and the scenery is beautiful, but you would have to go there earlier for good snow”, he concludes.

Blumi pushing it while he still can. Location: Norway. Photo: Jan-Erik Blomberg

FUTURE

Blumi sees the current flat rents in Helsinki too high, as he doesn´t want to pay a thousand euros per month for the walls. “I don´t even know, where I´d like to live, I like Lyngen, but could I live there all year round?” Moving to the Alps could be an option, but you would have to build your social life from scratch and must pay 70-100 euros for the lift tickets (unless you hike, of course.)

As Blumi has already turned 50, one has to question how long can he keep on living in a van? He says he doesn´t know, but he´ll continue for as long as it´s fun, taking it one winter at a time. “I´m not tied up with anything, but the dog, I have a shared custody with my ex, so Jedi will be staying at her place when I take off to Japan”, he adds. Blumi continues by saying that he enjoys Jedi´s company during his trips, and the dog will be joining him in March for his trip to Lapland and Norway. And no, Jedi will not be running down the couloirs with Blumi, but will be waiting in the van instead. The couloirs would be too steep and a dog would add another potential risk factor to the equation.

As a skier, he feels he has to push it now, while he´s still able to (ski on the level and on the terrain he prefers): “in 20 years I will be out of the game for sure, I might be able to ski on the slopes, but will that interest me?”

Jedi is a seasoned van dog by now. Photo: Jan-Erik Blomberg

After our conversation Bluimi says he´ll be driving to a ski shop to hang out and probably drink some more coffee. It´s another week to the Freeride Festival, after which he plans to drive up north to Lapland for some early season resort skiing, before returning to his parent´s home for Christmas.

For January and February, he´s contemplating Japan: “I haven´t been to Japan for a long time, so that would be my plan A.” He then adds that it´s all about the snowfall: he can wait until the last moment and change the plan if there´s not going to be enough snow in Japan – another perk of the vagabond van skier´s lifestyle.

Is this plan A or plan B? Either way, it ooks ok. to us. Location: Norway. Photo: Jan-Erik Blomberg

Blumi´s 3 tips for the van and on the hill

Coffee

I have a coffee grinder in the van and I usually drink French Press coffee. It’s easy to prepare, and you won´t burn the coffee, as you easily can with a Moka pot. Aeropress is too difficult to clean, when you live in a van. I don´t usually have any cooking equipment with me when I´m ski touring or hiking, so I only drink coffee in the van.

Food

When you´re going ski touring in Lyngen, you have to eat a proper meal in the morning, as you consume around 3000 extra calories per day. I don´t eat much on the hill, but rather another big meal after the ski day. Eating sandwiches on the hill takes too much time - especially with the company I´m skiing with these days, so I prefer protein drinks instead.

I have been thinking about boosting my performance this winter with carbohydrates: eating both glucose and fructose around 20 g per hour. You must train your stomach to handle it though, or otherwise you could be in a hurry to go to the loo.

Backpack

I have a 45-litre backpack and I´ve tried to make it as light as possible. Inside I´ve got the essentials: a water bottle, snacks, airbag cartridge, shovel, probe, down jacket, crampons, snow plates, helmet and ski goggles.

And you must have a helmet camera, because otherwise you won´t get any content, and without any content, were you even there in the first place!

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