Chalk it up to peer pressure. I’m standing in my bare feet and skivvies on a frozen Northern Ontario lake in the dead of winter, psyching up for a plunge into a slushy pool cut through more than a foot of ice. Kielyn Marrone assures me that this strange stunt—intended to impart confidence in aspiring winter campers—is often participants’ greatest highlight of Training Camp, a four-day primer on the basics of traditional winter camping delivered by Lure of the North, an outfitter near Sudbury.
Today we chipped a hole through the ice and studied its tree-ring-like layers for a first-hand lesson in ice safety. The plunge is meant to demonstrate “just how quickly you can get out, and how quickly you’ll warm up afterward if you have the right clothing,” says Marrone, who founded Lure of the North with her husband, Dave, in 2012.
Training Camp appeals to outdoor enthusiasts—often avid canoe trippers and three-season campers—who want to learn more about an emerging trend in outdoor adventure. Oversized wooden snowshoes and narrow, three-metre toboggans were vehicles of the coureurs des bois of the Canadian fur trade, who adopted the methods of First Nations for travelling on frozen lakes and rivers.
Spacious canvas tents, designed to accommodate portable woodstoves, make camping downright luxurious. But “hot camping,” as it’s called, requires a hefty investment in gear.
