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Arctic Moment: Big Dippers

UP HERE - MAR/APR 2025

Members of the Yukon Ice Swimmers Club take the plunge at Chadburn Lake near Whitehorse

By Up Here

Photo By Weronika Murray

Photo By Weronika Murray

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Arctic Moment: Big Dippers

Cold-water swimming is now more than a New Year’s ritual or a rite of spring. It’s booming globally and, in Whitehorse, has been a winter-long activity among hardier residents for about five years.

The Yukon Ice Swimmers Facebook group boasts 1,500 members. But the practice is not new. As early as 400 B.C.E., Hippocrate was writing that cold plunges relieve muscle fatigue. Vikings bathed daily in freezing water and the practice has centuries of history in Eastern Europe and Nordic countries.

Today, its popularity is largely linked to potential health benefits, including positive effects on the heart, blood pressure and mental health. But there are risks, possibly fatal ones. The shock of hitting the water can produce heart arrhythmia, a special risk to people with pre-existing conditions. There’s also the danger of losing muscle control, even over breathing. Hypothermia goes without saying. 

And, gentlemen, there will be shrinkage.

UP HERE - MAR/APR 2025

Photo by Haley Ritchie

Nature... and Nurture

How a popular northern hot spring caters to visitors from near and far—and bears, moose and snails  

By Haley Ritchie

Photo by Haley Ritchie

May 13th, 2025 May 13th, 2025

UP HERE - MAR/APR 2025

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Things that Go Flap in the Night

But for how much longer? Short-tailed shearwaters can migrate 30,000 kilometres, but the warming oceans may be more than they can handle

By Page Burt

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May 13th, 2025 May 13th, 2025

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July/Aug 2006

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Bare Country

In Canada's wide-open northwest, uninhibited adventurers are giving "northern exposure" a whole new meaning.

May 13th, 2025 May 13th, 2025

UP HERE - MAR/APR 2025

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For the Love of the Hunt

Col. Harry Snyder loved stalking big game. When he hit barriers in the north, he created “scientific” expeditions

May 13th, 2025 May 13th, 2025

UP HERE - MAR/APR 2025

Photo by Jocelyn Land-Murphy

It’s the Algorithm, Skiers

How a 14-year-old whitehorse whiz kid hopes to speed up Canada’s cross-country Team

May 13th, 2025 May 13th, 2025

UP HERE - MAR/APR 2025

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Found in translation

How Jeela Palluq-Cloutier saved a prime minister from becoming prime rib 

May 13th, 2025 May 13th, 2025

UP HERE - MAR/APR 2025

Photo by Erik Pinkerton

For What We Deserve

Na-Cho Nyäk Dun chief Dawna Hope has one of the toughest jobs in the North, but this is where she’s meant to be

May 13th, 2025 May 13th, 2025

UP HERE - NOV/DEC 2024

Photography by Manu Keggenhoff

Dual Citizen

Phil Timpany is creating a world that people and grizzly bears can both call home.

May 13th, 2025 May 13th, 2025
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Yellowknife, NT
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