I wrote an estimated 100,000 words over this last twelve months. Here are some highlights:
Throughout the year, I wrote a biweekly online column for Pacific Standard about the changing Arctic environment (and how its residents are engaging with those changes): Dispatches From a Changing Arctic. It wraps up in the next few weeks.
Way back in the January issue of Up Here, I wrote about the mysterious appeal of the Yukon Arctic Ultra: Cold Hard Competition. And my story about surfing (or trying to surf) in Tofino ran in the January issue of AFAR: The Far Side.
February and March were busy. I chronicled the rise and fall of the greatest comment section on the internet for Longreads: ‘It’s Yours’: A Short History of the Horde. I mourned the loss of Alaska’s ferry bars for Hazlitt. Over at Deadspin, I asked: What happens to enforcers when hockey uses them up? And I had a lot of fun digging into the history of the lost sport of ski ballet for Grantland (RIP).
One of my favorite stories this year was Unclimbable, for SB Nation Longform. It’s about an amazing group of young climbers I met while traveling in the Northwest Territories in 2014. (It comes with amazing photos by GPB Creative; hire them for all the things.) Also for SB Nation, I wrote about my experience in an extreme endurance canoe race, the Yukon River Quest: Hellbent, But Not Broken. (Photos in this case were by Joel Krahn; give your money to him, also!)
In June, Hazlitt published my story about Ramona Wilson, one of too many young women who’ve gone missing or been found murdered along British Columbia’s Highway of Tears. My story about the Yukon’s landmark Peel watershed land management case appeared in Up Here’s August issue: The Battle For The Peel. And on a lighter note, I wrote about Whitehorse’s own Garbage Truck Santa for The Walrus.
Apart from my column, I didn’t write or publish much in the last few months of the year – I tried to take some time off after my mom’s death. I’ve got big things coming in 2016, though! Happy New Year.
