Nora has been creating her own outdoor clothing and equipment since the age of 12, when she sewed her first jacket with extra long sleeves. When she had just turned 18, she designed and sewed a fleece jacket with an integrated overlapping thick neck warmer that she still wears. The idea behind the fleece was to not have to deal with a separate scarf that could slide around, but neither have to have an annoying cold zipper under the chin. Growing up in Calgary, where it was regularly minus 30 degrees, she was aware of the dangers of cold metal against skin and the need to protect vulnerable parts of the body well.
She likes to find clothing, material and equipment that works particularly well for her own outdoor adventures but doesn’t hesitate to design and make her own when the perfect solution isn’t for sale.
Nora has traveled and backpacked extensively around the world, leading canoe trips at university to Killarney and Algonquin park, rafting down jungle rivers in Venezuela, camping in the desert of Oman and on the beaches of Australia, to name a few. Due to her slight build she is hyper aware of every gram that is in her backpack and the negative impact that too much weight can have. On the other hand, going too minimalist means suffering, which defeats the purpose of being in the great outdoors. So the key question is: “Which materials and designs maximize enjoyment?”
Finding and creating light-weight but robust travel and outdoor gear has been a lifelong passion. She has blogged about it for the last 8 years, creating curious constructions that are not quite middle of the road and being curious about longevity of materials and products. In 2025 she has made this her main occupation, investigating cool and interesting materials and creations that improve the enjoyment of traveling and being outdoors.
Some of the highlights of simple lightweight products are:
Dyneema: strong, lightweight, transparent and non-stretchy material that can be used for ultralight tents, clothing and baggies. Nora has led several workshops in Europe for where people can create their own nanobaggies to suit their personal purposes.
Mini-Magnets: Are excellent for opening tent doors and bike packs with one gloved hand.
Down-filled sleeping mats: Exped’s down mats have increased the enjoyment of sleeping outdoors substantially, ensuring a good night’s sleep in comfort, ready for the next day’s adventures.
Boating gear for backpacking, backpacking gear for boating and cycling: having renovated an old sailboat and thinking outside the box, Nora used backpacking materials on the boat, such as carabiners and waterproof materials. She has adapted hiking backpacks and lunch boxes for attaching to cycling racks.
Although she owns six sewing machines, she is also fascinated with creating clothing and products without sewing. Arc’teryx has some beautiful designs, and dyneema material is taped together.
In 1982 she got the “Shop of the year” award for the many products she designed and created in the school’s shop room. Nora studied Applied Mathematics with a minor in mechanical engineering at the University of Waterloo, did a PhD in Computational Geometry, worked on the 3D USM Configurator for Perspectix, https://www.perspectix.com/en/, then had a long career as IT project and international program manager.
As an IT project and program manager she particularly focused on risk management – thinking ahead 6 or 12 months and confronting the risks that would impede the team from meeting their goals.
In 2025 she pivoted to a second career as an outdoor equipment materials and equipment reviewer and designer. In her opinion, the two go hand in hand – by considering how a product could best suit your own needs and how it could be further improved, you get ideas for creating those things yourself and you consider which materials you need to realize those creations. By then actually going through the process of making something, you become more aware of the difficulties in the manufacturing process.
Cool and Interesting 