Rudy Owens and Bryant Tolles: Finding ski trails and adventure in rural Imatra, Finland

Bryant Tolles is an American expatriate who currently calls Imatra, Finland home when he is not back in the United States. He has spent the last two decades in finance and business consulting, having worked in the San Francisco Bay Area working with tech startups. He continues to work virtually with his consulting firm to help emerging startups. From his base in Imatra, just three kilometers north of the Russian border and three hours east from Helsinki, Tolles is enjoying his time Finland, skiing countless local ski trails in the surrounding communities in the winter. Warmer and summer weather finds him outdoors in Finland, exploring its many outdoor recreation opportunities. His base in Finland also allows him to visit neighboring countries. His next planned ski adventure will take him to Tartu, Estonia, in mid-February 2025 for the World Loppet ski race that he plans to race on traditional wooden skis.
Note, this is an audio recording only, but posted as a video for my "Finding Finland" podcast series. Our conversation touched on a number of topics. These include: Finland’s most celebrated sniper and war hero Simo Häyhä (a museum for him is near Imatra), current tensions between Finland and Russia, cross country ski culture and infrastructure in Finland and Finnish communities, life as an expat American living in a rural Finnish community, Finnish public education and income and social equality, Finnish male culture’s love of car racing and classic American “muscle vehicles” (as Tolles described them), and the quality of life in Finland. For people who want a good examination of Finland’s social safety net, public school system, and why it performs well on many metrics of individual and gender equality, I recommend the 2020 book Finntopia, by authors and researchers Annika Koljonen and Danny Dorling; details here: www.dannydorling.org/finntopia/.
For my other “Finding Finland” podcasts, visit: www.rudyowens.com/finding-finland-podcast/.