Scan Magazine | Architect of the Month | Denmark
Photo: Santi Fox
The ultimate Jukka Hildén Jukka Hildén has 4.6 million YouTube Red subscribers. That is more people than watch Love Island or Top Gear. However, despite his success, the ringleader of the renowned stunt team The Dudesons likes to keep his feet firmly on the ground — metaphorically speaking, of course. By Paula Hammond | Photos: Rabbit Films
Hildén has just launched his new hit online series Ultimate Expedition, in which eight celebrities with no previous climbing experience attempt to ascend Mount Tocllaraju in Peru. It is heart-stopping stuff — experienced climbers die every year trying to reach the peak. Fortunately, Hildén is a man who never backs away from a challenge. The Finnish-born extreme sports star spent his early years “tipping over sleep108 | Issue 115 | August 2018
ing cows” in the small town of Seinäjoki. It was an idyllic childhood “with lots of love and attention”, but, he admits, “with no rules”. The result was a kid with “a good heart and lots of confidence”. That devil-may-care attitude has served him well. “I always wanted to do something special — to test my limits, push myself and learn, even when I was younger,” he explains. “So I applied for the Finnish Special Forces and got in. Military service
is compulsory in Finland anyway, so why get bored and do it the normal way?” From jumping out of planes to digging snow caves, Special Forces training is not for the faint-hearted. 120 people started the course with Hildén. Only 80 finished. But while the experience fuelled his love of adventure and taught him valuable survival skills, it also gave him something much more useful: “It taught me that it’s okay to use your head and to bend the rules in the right places.” Stunt performers, he comments, practice and calculate their stunts. He does not do that. Instead, intuition and common sense are his guides. “Obviously I’m not going to do something insane and stupid that