Frank has always been a person with passion for the outdoor lifestyle. Since he was a little boy his parents took him to the mountains for hiking. He always wanted to become an adventurer, spend time in the mountains and share this passion with other people, which is why he chose to study outdoor & adventures in his home country of the Netherlands. He then spent a few years on professionalizing himself in the outdoor & adventure business and learning survival and hiking skills in the mountains of Pyrenees, Scotland and several other places in Europe.

After finishing this study he decided to become a qualified teacher in sports, because working with kids and young adults is also something that is a passion of him. He would like to create events and natural play sites to motivate children and young adults to spend more time in nature, as he did with his parents.

Since begin of 2016 he started his own outdoor organization Vanlieshoutdoor, where he wants to organize events and projects to share his passion for outdoor & adventure with other people in the near future.

Next to his passion for outdoor he decided to start his career as athlete. Before 2016, Frank never did sports as a goal to become the fastest or strongest in a kind of sport – he simply did sports for fun – but after probably the worst moment of Frank’s outdoor career, his mindset changed towards sports. After this moment he decided to search for challenges, the first challenge being obstacle running. He qualified for the European championships in the Netherlands and later in the year also for the world championships in Canada. You can read his article how he made it out in the world championships!

In the summer of 2016, Frank was in Scotland with the one-legged Etchrock Elite Michael Robbert Brans to climb the country’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis. Supporting Michael on his way to the top was Frank’s first project with Vanlieshoutdoor. During this challenge he met Stuart and Jason (owners of Etchrock), who also came over to support Michael. They said to Frank: “You came here to support Michael, but when will be your challenge?”

During this weekend they told him about the Bob Graham round in the Lake District, which is a mountain run of more than 60 miles and 42 peaks within a period of 24 hours. When they told Frank about this, he had the whole thing scheduled and planned out within 30 minutes. They were like: “this guy is from another level”. A few weeks later Frank did his first attempt of the Bob Graham round for which Stuart came over to support him. Unfortunately, he didn’t finish the challenge, but you can read more about this in his article. In 2017 he will come back again to smash the Bob Graham round. Here in the lakes district Stuart asked Frank to become one of Etchrock’s Elite athletes.