Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2023 i Explore Magazine

Of all the ways to define a challenge, the simplest works best: a call for special effort. It applies to everyone. It’s not enough to declare that skiing a black diamond is a challenge; or that snowshoeing a 10-kilometre route is a challenge. For some, neither may be. For others, both are beyond comprehension. A call for special effort means only you know when you’re being challenged. If you’re red-faced and out of breath, yeah, then it’s probably a challenge. If you have to focus, buckle down and push hard to complete the task—consider yourself challenged. This season, we sourced 10 of the most exciting winter challenges around Canada (page 28). Sure, there are some that even the author has no intention of undertaking—the Ice Mile comes to mind, a…

Tim O’Brien expected a gathering of van- and RV-living nomads last spring to be five days of partying and dancing on roof tops. “Instead, it seemed like half the people were in their vans streaming movies or playing games,” he says from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where he lives when he’s not travelling. O’Brien blames Starlink. The satellite internet provider owned by Elon Musk released a mobile satellite internet kit designed for RV and van owners last spring. The simple set up makes fast internet accessible everywhere, enabling work from anywhere and changing vanlife culture in the process. “There’s good and bad to it,” O’Brien says. “It lets people have an adventurous lifestyle who couldn’t in the past. But it is going to have a negative impact on the community…

$50 or less LifeStraw Peak Series Solo Water Filter $40; lifestraw.com It’s one of the world’s lightest water filters (48 grams) but still removes bacteria, parasites, micro plastics, silt and cloudiness. It also screws onto many water bottles. The Utty $50; theutty.com The Utty is a vertical hanging system ideal for organizing, drying and storing gear at home or in the field. It’s simple, modular and brilliant. BioLite AlpenGlow Mini $40; bioliteenergy.com Whether hanging from the top of a tent or lighting a picnic-table card game, the Mini casts plenty of light in four different colours. Smartwool Trickster Ski Socks $39; trickstercompany.com Smartwool is one of several brands partnering with Indigenousowned Trickster Company. Proceeds from gear and apparel decorated with Tlingit artwork, like these merino socks, helps Pacific salmon. Peak…

I’ve been fortunate to have travelled the globe a lot for my work over the years. Lately I’m more mindful of my environmental footprint and try to be selective when it comes to trips that involve air transport, work or otherwise. However, I’m also acutely aware of the empowering benefits of travel. It might sound cliché or trite, but when you remove yourself from the comfort and preconceptions of your day-to-day life and immerse in another culture, it has the power to foster understanding, compassion, empathy and tolerance—values that are in short supply around the world these days. Two years ago, photographer Kari Medig and I traveled to the Kingdom of Jordan with our mountain bikes to explore the Jordan Trail, a 600-kilometre north-south trail linking ancient trading routes and…

MSR Evo trail SnowShoe $299; mec.ca These introduction-level snowshoes from MSR are easy to wear and simple to use. Engineered to provide bite on hard snow and slopes, they have traction rails on the decks and crampons underfoot—making them stable when you’re moving over rolling terrain and tackling ice or raincrust. The Paraglide™ binding has stretch mesh to hold the foot securely without pressure points and the binding straps are easy to use, even when wearing gloves. SABRE Frontiersman Xtra Bear Spray 325 Gram Canister with Glow in the Dark Safety $69.95; sabrered.com Experience the great outdoors worry-free knowing your SABRE Frontiersman Xtra Bear Spray provides the maximum strength allowed by Heath Canada. Explore confidently during day or night with the glow-in-the-dark safety that allows for visibility during all hours.…

Breathing deeply, I tried to relax as I glided down a short hill. I was cross-country skiing along the lower portion of Tumbler Ridge’s frozen Babcock Creek to an icy formation known locally as The Seeps, but my nerves were getting the best of me. Part of a multi-day, late-winter trip to the region, I’d been snowmobiling, snowshoeing and skiing in borrowed gear in -30 C weather—and I wasn’t at my best. Our goal had been to get a sense of the incredible geology, paleontology and human history found in the Tumbler Ridge Geopark, but as I skirted past boulders and over slushy sections of snow, I kept catching the edge of my ski on the rolling stream bed. I couldn’t keep up with the group, let alone appreciate the…

I’m a reader—always have been, (hopefully) always will be. Although the allure of adventure pulls me away from my cozy reading nook and into the fresh air, I never leave home without a paperback to escape into. Sometimes reading about people’s wild escapades is just as exciting—especially if you don’t have to endure the hard parts yourself. Chosen by me, explore’s™ managing editor, content & community, along with president and editor-in-chief David Webb and four of our regular contributors, these books will satiate your adventure-lust during the brittle winter months. Cozy up and escape. Alison’s Recommendations Never Alone: A Solo Arctic Survival Journey by Woniya Dawn Thibeault For fans of The History Channel’s show “Alone,” this heartfelt and vulnerable memoir dives into Thibeault’s struggles with self-doubt, worthiness and listening to…

Caroline Côté is the fastest woman on Earth to reach the South Pole solo. Her epic ski journey began on December 9, 2022, at Hercules Inlet in West Antarctica and ended on January 11, 2023, at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Averaging 30 kilometres a day, it took the self-proclaimed “small, city girl” from Montreal 33 days, two hours and 53 minutes to traverse the desolate 1,130-kilometre route. Côté made history by smashing the previous record of 38 days and 23 hours set by Swedish adventurer Johanna Davidsson in 2016, and joined an elite group of explorers to have crossed Antarctica in complete autonomy. “It’s a calling. There is something really powerful about these pristine places where there is no one. When you finish the day, you are just proud…

Reed Platenius embraces the winter elements as an up-and-coming professional surfer before heading out for a winter surf in Tofino, British Columbia. Afterward, he mentioned how, although surfing in the snow is aesthetically pleasing for a photographer, it’s actually quite inconvenient as the offshore wind blows all the snowflakes into your eyes and blinds you while on the wave. Tofino is located on the traditional territory (Ha-houlthee) of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation of the Nuu-chah-nulth peoples. DETAILS MODEL Canon EOS-1D X Mark II LENS EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM SHUTTER SPEED 1/400 APERTURE f/2.8 ISO 1250 FOCAL LENGTH 24mm…

Most outdoor enthusiasts are quite comfortable spending a sunny day wandering the frozen woods during the winter season. But when the sun goes down, the night air turns crisp and the sap in the trees starts to crack due to dropping temperature, well, those same people would totally avoid sleeping out for a night or two. However, with proper gear and some tips and tricks, you can stay warm—even cozy—snoozing on a bed of snow. Sleeping Pads Sleeping pads are essential when sleeping on the snow. If it deflates, you’ll get a major chill from the cold ground. There are lots of choices: open-cell foam, closed-cell foam, combinations of both, inflatable mattresses. Get the pad that will keep you higher off the snow and one that you can afford. I…

"Do your sponsors make you do the crazy stuff you do?” The question came from the back of the room. I let the question hang for a few seconds, because I get similar queries at climbing shows, sales conferences and the safety talks I do for the oil and gas industry. There’s often a perception that because I do things that seem crazy, I must be doing them for money. But the truth is much weirder: I’d pay to do this stuff if I wasn’t getting paid to do it (just don’t tell my sponsors). I have never been asked by a sponsor to do anything in my sport. I am often asked to speak at events and teach clinics—but never have I been told how to do my sports,…