BBC Natural World: Sisters of the Snow

BBC selected Whitney & Smith to help them with their natural history filming project Sisters of the Snow on Ellesmere Island. Whitney & Smith guide Mike Farris joined Mike Diliger and Ian McCarthy from early June to first of August. Bob Saunders returned to Ellesmere with Mark Smith from end of August to September 8. Mike reported in that he was looking forward to 'getting out of the sun after close to 55 days of 24 hour sunlight. Bob said Mark Smith couldn't believe the food Whitney & Smith provided, and 'he even photographed it to show the others back home'. Mike Diliger sent us a quick word of thanks :

" In short, we thought the whole trip was incredibly well run by you and your team. The food was wonderful, all the various ways of transporting us across the ice/sea worked perfectly and everything was incredibly well marshalled by Mike, whose dedication to the job was flawless. He not only coped with two demanding Brits for 8 weeks, but worked incredibly hard, was always thinking ahead and was also incredibly practical when it came to building a tower with nothing more than a couple of ski-runners, a pallette and some driftwood! Thanks also to you and your team for providing such wonderful support and so ably sorting out all the incredibly complicated logistics which went with us staying out in the field a couple of weeks longer than planned."

We'll keep you posed when Natural World: Sisters of the Snows airs!

Islands of the Taiga, East Arm, Great Slave Lake

We are just home from paddling the East Arm, Great Slave Lake! You will be able to read about the trip with Patrick Kane's article in the March, 2008 issue of Up Here Magazine. Jamie Whiteside played great music on the guitar by the fire most nights, Navarana Smith made great desserts and Don Carpenter and Hannelore Achenbach caught beautiful 8 pounder Lake Trout. This trip was Mary King's of Hay River first sea kayaking trip ever. She did great! We enjoyed watching the bald eagles and hearing the beautiful calls for the Common Loon and migrating geese and the visit of a 2 year old black bear.