The people
Maija Pukkila is from Rauvanniemi on the shore of Puruvesi in Etelä-Savo and Oscar Manguy comes from Baja California in Mexico.
After graduating from Storumans folkhögskola in Sweden as a Wilderness Backcountry guide at the age of 25, Maija headed off on a three-month, 3600km solo sea kayak expedition around the coastlines of Finland and Sweden. Even if she enjoyed the journey, afterward she decided outdoor trips are more fun when shared with other people and started working as an outdoor educator for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). She has been working for over a decade leading 14-30 day backpacking and sea kayaking expeditions in Norway, Sweden, Alaska, Patagonia, Mexico, and New Zealand, and working with the operational side of organizing the expeditions. At the start of her outdoor educator journey, she also completed adventure education studies at HUMAK University of Applied Sciences. Maija teaches outdoor skills at Outdoor Academy Finland, a wilderness guide school on the west coast of Finland.
Oscar participated in a 15-month hiking expedition around the shoreline of Baja California at the age of 19 walking a total distance of 2500km. After graduating from the University of Baja California Sur as a psychologist he headed off to lead expeditions for NOLS. Since then he has been leading backpacking and sea kayaking expeditions in remote locations in Mexico, New Zealand, Alaska, Patagonia, Mexico, and Norway, and working with the NOLS instructor teams as their supervisor in multiple locations. Oscar is the head of 360 North, an adventure media company based in Finland and available worldwide.
Our family includes our sons Leo and Mateo, who are exploring the natural world and company life with us.
Together we have spent over 500 weeks in the backcountry in professional settings and believe that the outdoors is a place of joy and growth. We do long expeditions in remote places to enjoy ourselves and learn new skills to experience nature in multiple ways. Managing the risks of running expeditions and building community with other outdoor enthusiasts is important to us.
The values
Outdoors are for everyone - for short and tall, skinny and fat, emotional and stoic, women, men and non-binary, fit and unfit, beginners and experienced - and we believe that emphasizing the joy of going out enables more people to find their place in the nature.
See you out there!
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