Tyin Filefjell

Halgeir (68) ran Tyinkrysset Fjellstue for forty years, but when he had a heart attack, he realized he had to take life more slowly. For Halgeir, that didn't mean lying on the couch. It meant going to the mountains to look after the herd. Several thousand reindeer move across vast areas from Eidsbugarden to Småtind, and as a reindeer herder, Halgeir ensures that the animals stay on the right pasture, don't move towards roads or other herds, and that the calves make it through the most vulnerable time of spring.

– You live a free life. No stress. You decide your day yourself. I haven't dreaded going to work for a single day, says Halgeir.

Now Halgeir produces reindeer on nature's terms, without feed, medication or long transport. He has helped build Rein fra Jotunheimen as the first and only geographically protected reindeer meat in Norway. The meat is awarded and is considered some of the most exclusive the Norwegian highlands can offer, and Halgeir is training the next generation of reindeer herders together with his son.

Jotunheimen was one of the major high mountain destinations already in the post-war period, but the area was remote. Lasse's grandfather, Knut Nystuen, bought a small plane. Together with some friends, he put on skis and flew around Tyinvatnet, lap after lap, until the plane took off. In the winter, he landed on the mountain lakes, in the summer with floatation devices. He flew tourists, ran rescue services and used the plane as a natural part of life in the mountains. Today, Lasse flies in the same areas, over the same ridges and lands on the same lakes as his grandfather did.

– You sit behind the controls and don't think about much. It's just you and nature and the flying machine. What sets Tyin apart from other destinations is the proximity to real mountains. That's the common denominator: the joy of the mountains, the joy of flying and the joy of using nature.

Like a migratory bird, he sets his course for Jotunheimen. He flies in the same landscape as the generations before him. Even though the world changes, the mountains there stand firm as ever.