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Norway – Bergen with Stian

If you follow the international skyraces, you must know Stian Angermund. The Bergen based runner was world champion Skymarathon and VK in 2016 and winner of the  Golden Trail Series in 2018 and 2021. But more than that he is a very open hearted and warm person. When we asked him to show his home trails he immediately said yes, so off we went to Bergen Norway! 

Stian took us to the Bergen city mountains that surround the town. There are tons of trails over there and they are quite rocky and technical. That makes it the perfect training surroundings for Stian. The first mountain to climb is Ulriken, with 642 meters the highest of Byfjellene, the seven city mountains of Bergen. When we start running uphill Stian starts talking about his passion for running.

He was born in august 1986 and started sporting as a young biathlon athlete for about ten years.  He found out that he especially favoured the long runs that were part of the training. In those days he lived in a small town near Oslo and as a young boy he was fond on day dreaming. His thoughts went all along the universe during those long runs and sometimes he even forgot where he had run. He started running uphill races when he was fifteen years old and became quite good at it. At the age of 21 he moved to Bergen and started running more and more.

Stian’s races vary from the vertical K’s to skymarathons and longer. The 76K race at the Festival des Tempeliers is his longest until so far. But because recovery time is so long for those ultra-distances, he prefers shorter distances at the moment. The more technical and steep races are his favourites like the Ring of Steall in Scotland. He enjoys the climbs and the spectacular views. From Ulriken we run across Vidden, the high plateau east of Bergen to the highest point of the plateau called Haugavarden (674 meters). On the way back to Bergen we pass some small mountain lakes from which Vassdalvatnet is the biggest.

Stian became world champion 2016 on the VK and skymarathon in Lleida Spain. He was the only competitor that ran the marathon distance with 3.200 positive vertical climb within less than four hours. Although these titles he didn’t feel like being the world’s best. At the world championships in 2018 he didn’t so to speak defend his titles but attacked them again. That must be the through Angermund-Vik spirit! Stian likes to travel around, see new places en meet new people. Skyrunning is his way to explore the most beautiful places on our planet. Within the runner’s community all the experiences of races and places are shared.

For Stian the most important aspect of running is being in nature and enjoying the sceneries. He could never be a flat runner, that would be to boring to him. He also likes the competition and the social aspect of the races. The racers-community feels like a family to him. He also enjoyes the crowd at races like Zegama. In the uphill parts the crowd goes wild and Stian is having a party at those moment. That is really exhausting but also gives him a boost. Stian would like to run a long distance trail through Norway from mountainhut to hut. But that’s something for later, because at the moment the races take all his time and effort.

  • Ulriken is the highest of the seven city mountains of Bergen. On top of Ulriken there is a restaurant. For info check: www.ulriken643.no/en
  • You can run up and take the cable car down or the other way around.
  • If you visit Bergen see this website for more info: www.visitbergen.com
  • Stian recommends some places for a drink and to eat:
  • pygmalion.no
  • pingvinen.no