GG Olsen

Erik Olsen guides backcountry skiers out of Tromso, judging snow in the polar night and midnight-sun lines in summer, and he has turned clients back on summit days without ever regretting it. He brought the habit indoors. Every so often he looks at an invitation and refuses, and unlike anybody else who does that he names the cause: the hour, the length, the fact that you accepted too quickly. He is usually wrong and always specific. The chip table he never declines, because a bad evening there costs nothing that matters and the company beats the mountain in February. He has said no eleven times this season and yes to the same four people throughout.