Mark is an ultralight backpacker based in Rovaniemi on the Arctic Circle in Lapland, Finland. Originating from England, he grew up walking the South Downs in Kent before getting bitten by the outdoor bug on a trip to the mountains of Snowdonia, Wales. After spending a few years living in Romania exploring the Carpathian mountains, he returned to the UK to get a BA in Photography, then hooked up with a cute classmate and promptly left for Helsinki, Finland. Soon after that they moved even further north to Rovaniemi where he lived for eight years and had a great time hiking on the fells of Lapland and the mountains of northern Norway and Sweden. Just as he was getting comfortable, his cute classmate (now wife) got a teaching gig in Minneapolis. For the last three years he’s been enjoying the great open spaces of the U.S of A, but will return home to his adopted home of Lapland in November 2011 – laden with a lot more ultralight gear and hopefully a packraft, ready for future adventures in the sub-arctic north.

When he’s not walking, he spends the rest of his time working as a state-funded artist making large-scale video installations, writing screenplays, and working as a Creative Director for a Lapland-based games studio. He also likes to brew his own beer, and longs to discover a successful method of dehydrating it for trail use.

Home: Rovaniemi, Finland

Age: 41

Website: www.backpackingnorth.com

Favorite training grounds: Finnish Lapland, where I’m spoilt for choice in wilderness hiking on the rolling fells and tundra, and the exciting, crinkly, pointy bits of Norway are never far away.

Current plans: I’m currently writing an epic hiking guide to Lapland which I anticipate consuming several years, many pairs of shoes, and an awful lot of dehydrated shepherd’s pie.

Favorite Piece of Gossamer Gear: Without question the SpinnTwinn. Its insane lightness always brings a giddy smile to my face.