Erik grew up in rural and small-town North Dakota and Norway, with the traditional blond-blue Scandinavian look, being full-blooded Norwegian and Swedish back to 1358. He worked for several years at his relatives' mountaintop ski lodge in Hadeland, Norway, raising and training Norwegian elk hounds & horses, practicing professional massage and serving in the Ski Patrol Rescue Reserve. Backpacking around Europe for 4½ years and living in Paris & Rome made him a committed big-city boy.