What do you do in the winter? Do you get out and enjoy nature throughout the year or do you stay indoors and hibernate for the cold and snowy season?
As we get partway through winter I’d love to challenge you to do the former. I know winter is starting to feel long for some of you at this point, but we still have another few months of it so we might as well be outdoors and active!
This week Kielyn Marrone joins us to talk about traditional winter camping and travel as it was done in the northern forests — woven snowshoes, canvas tents, wool clothing, and hauling it all on toboggans!
Kielyn and her husband Dave operate Lure of the North, a company that leads traditional style winter expeditions in Canada. They have extensive experience being outdoors and active during the winter and I love how they choose to strike a balance between traditional and modern equipment.
Listen in as we discuss equipment, what it’s like to do an expedition like this, making your own gear and the competency that gives you, using terrain appropriate technology, staying warm and dry while outdoors for extended periods, beaver fat soap, and their philosophy on choosing the equipment they use.
Resources Mentioned
Laurentian University — outdoor adventure leadership program that Kielyn & Dave attended
lureofthenorth.com — Kielyn and Dave’s website, check out their expeditions!
LOTN patterns (for mittens, moccasins/mukluks, etc)
LOTN kits (mittens, moccasins, snowshoes, etc)
Books:
The Snowwalker’s Companion by Garrett and Alexandra Conover (the updated edition is called The Winter Wilderness Companion)
Building Wooden Snowshoes and Snowshoe Furniture by Gil Gilpatrick
Hi Daniel,
I was listening to your podcast with Kie from LOTN very fun! You were mentioning about making your own snowshoes and I see you bought some TeckDeck nylon from us last year, did you bend your own frames? Glad to find your podcast, I would encourage you to come to the Winter Camping Symposium in late Oct. lots of crafts people that make their own gear. https://wcs.eventnut.com
I did make my own frames, it was a very enjoyable project!
I’ve actually seen the Winter Camping Symposium before and have considered coming to it, but couldn’t make it out there at that time. I would love to in the future though! I think I put a link to it in the notes with the episode, but I’ll double check that and include them if I forgot to so that other folks can check it out as well.