AdamD

The Snow King Winter festival in #Yellowknife #NWT starts tomorrow! We've been working hard building the snow castle in temperatures as low as -44°C. When the walls are built, the carvers come in and carve beautiful, delicate reliefs over every surface. This year we'll have three ice slides, a big courtyard, the great hall for concerts and shows, and lots of little tunnels for kids to crawl around in. More pictures to come!

https://www.snowking.ca/

This video is taken from a place near the East arm of Great Slave Lake in the #NWT #Canada . We flew into a small lake nearby, then hiked for an hour to reach the falls. The water runs crystal clear down from the barren lands, where the flow is smooth it's like looking through a pane of glass

The local indigenous people have a legend of a powerful woman who has lived behind the falls for thousands of years and will remain there until the end of the world. When they have important decisions to make for their nation, they go to ask for her advice.

#waterfall #wilderness #outdoors

The Snow Castle is open! For the month of January the Snow Kings winter festival will host concerts and performances in the coolest venue in town. It was a pleasure to participate in its construction, and this year there's a little something extra.

My wife and I - with some help from a few volunteers - have constructed a parklet that is now installed outside the castle gates! It has benches, planters, free book/toy exchange, a community message board, a giant Connect Four game, and bike parking. The parklet will stay outside until the end of March, then it will be disassembled and stored until summer, at which time we'll install it in downtown #Yellowknife . We wanted to make something to make our city streets more welcoming and provide a place for people to enjoy their city.

Thanks for the support from the Institute for Circumpolar Health Research, 8 80 Cities, Makerspace YK, SHIFT NWT, and our volunteers

These deliveries went way smoother than I expected.

This weekend is the Folk on the Rocks music festival in #Yellowknife #nwt . On the evening before the festival proper, there is a semi-affiliated free music event called Float on the Rocks. A small selection of the Folk on the Rocks performers play a set on the front porch of one of the many houseboats in the area we call Houseboat Bay. To get there, you've got paddle, sail, or motor a boat over, then raft on to the other various canoes, kayaks, paddle boards, etc in attendance. The music's great and so is the atmosphere.

Last week I participated in the Velo City conference in #Gdansk , Poland. It was a beautiful city and a fantastic event. It was so energising to see all the different research, advocacy, and technology at work around the world focused on #urbancycling .

Our dependence on cars makes us more sick, depressed, isolated, & poor. Building & maintaining car infrastructure is a terribly inefficient use of city land, personnel, & finances. And it's dreadful for the environment. There's a surfeit of research that explores all of this.

Travelling by bike is the most efficient and accessible mode of intra-city transport, and with equipment like electric tricycles, cargo-bikes, folding bikes, or the classic "omafeits", almost anyone should be able to bike. Unfortunately, the car-focused design of our cities often makes it difficult.

I'll be heading back to #Yellowknife with lots of fresh ideas on how my city can become an active mobility capitol! Check out https://shiftnwt.org/ to see the work we're doing!

#velocity2025
#cycling #BikeTooter

@failedLyndonLaRouchite@mas.to I was not there as a tourist. I was the pilot hired to fly members of the aforementioned indigenous first nation there to engage in this cultural practice. The only other way to reach that location would be by hiking several days through rough bush, which the elders would not have been capable of.

If you disagree with the mortality of my profession, I understand that. I wrestle with it myself, that's part of the reason I've chosen to specialize in flying to places that are not accessible by other means. But we need to speak with dignity and respect if we're going to have these conversations.

I once heard a researcher (maybe in psychology, not sure) say, "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." I found that empowering. I'm doing things like reducing my consumerism, reducing the amount of farmed meat my household eats and growing what food I can, and advocating for active transportation and reduced car dependency; including a free bike lending program I run with my wife.