He Took a 700-Mile Adventure. Only His Dog Returned

Norway has long made celebrities out of its wilderness trekkers—29-year-old musher Steffen Skjottelvik died trying to become one of them. Writing for the New York Times, Blair Braverman reconstructs how the aspiring adventurer's multiyear, 700-mile quest to cross Canada and reach Alaska ended in the cold, fast water of Manitoba's Hayes River, just as the finish line, the historic trading post of York Factory, finally came into view. Ten days after his dog Togo was spotted alone on the riverbank in August 2025, rescuers found Skjottelvik's body and an SD card holding more than 20 hours of video diaries, including footage from minutes before he entered the river for the last time. "To this day, I'm one of the only people to have watched it all," Braverman writes.

Braverman uses those videos and memories from Skjottelvik's family, Indigenous hosts, and Skjottelvik's girlfriend in Peawanuck, Ontario, to trace his evolution from a solitary Norwegian introvert to someone planning a permanent life in the Cree community he'd come to love. He even had secret meetings with a Cree elder to learn the language. "He wanted to surprise everyone," Braverman writes. The story follows Skjottelvik's dogs, polar bear encounters, the loss and improbable return of his young pup Bay, and the grief that now binds his loved ones on two continents. "I would sit with Togo and cry," his girlfriend, Lilyann Mack, said of the early days after Skjottelvik's death. "[Togo] would sit silently with me, as though he was feeling the same way. The first few weeks, he howled all night." For the full journey—and the unanswered questions about his final choice—more here.