Goodbye, Tor Eckhoff

There’s a mile-long list of people I need to thank for helping me to become a hiker, landscape photographer, and all-around outdoorsy person. My friends and family certainly played a huge part, but as important are the many YouTube personalities I’ve been watching for years. Through the site, I’ve learned how to prepare a fire, sleep in a car while camping, hike in the winter, and compose the perfect photograph in good light. I’ve also learned how to simply appreciate being outside, doing the things I enjoy. No one helped me with that better than Tor Eckhoff, otherwise known as Apetor.

If you watch his videos, you’d be forgiven for being a little puzzled at first. In them, there’s a man doing goofy, child-like stunts while skating on ice, swimming in freezing lakes, drinking vodka from the bottle, and eating things most people wouldn’t. Like many, I was bemused at first, but over time, I began to understand the mission of the channel. Here was Tor Eckhoff, a genuinely nice person and paint factory worker, using his spare time to film light-hearted videos while outside in Norway’s beautiful landscapes. In his YouTube videos and Instagram posts, you can see his dedication to his viewers by way of constantly replying to comments and acknowledging fans in subsequent videos. There’s no YouTuber vanity, no clickbait nonsense, and no pretense.

While I won’t be sitting in a bathtub full of frozen water anytime soon, Tor’s teachings were clear: have a good time, screw what anyone else thinks, and love the outdoors.

He died doing exactly that, while filming a recent video on a frozen lake in Kongsberg, Norway.

I, and over a million others, will miss him profoundly. In keeping with Tor’s teachings, though, I’m going to do what he would want: keep enjoying the outdoors. I’m going to remember that life is a cosmically lucky blip on the universal radar, and it’s best to enjoy it while you have it.

Farvel, Tor.