Snow is on its way, and along with it comes a celebration of all things winter: Winterer’s Gathering & Arctic Film Festival at North House Folk School in Grand Marais.
North House will host the annual event Nov. 17-20. Featured speakers this year are Isle Royale wildlife biologist Rolf Peterson, filmmaker George Desort and polar explorer Mark Terry. This year’s featured course instructor is winter camping legend Garrett Conover.
The featured presentation and film screening with Peterson and Desort are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 19. Terry’s talk and film screening will be Friday at 8 p.m. Garrett Conover will offer four courses ranging in length from a half day to an overnight excursion.
All of the Gathering classics are on the schedule, including a chili feed, gear swap, contra dance and the winter tent camp. Friday, Saturday and Sunday are also filled with hour-long drop-in seminars and demos focusing on everything from winter expeditions to living off the grid. Cost for seminars is $5 each, or buy a weekend pass for $25 at the event and become a North House member.
The Arctic Film Festival component of the event also runs Friday through Sunday and includes ethno-historic, documentary and winter travel-related films focused on people of the north. Films are free, but donations are accepted to support the festival.
Also on the schedule are 22 inspiring courses including yurt building, blacksmithing, snowshoe-making and cooking.
Featured speaker Peterson will lead a session on wolves, coyotes and foxes and wolf-prey interactions, and Desort will offer a course on film making. Conover will lead four workshops on reading ice, wilderness travel, winter provisioning and an overnight winter camping course.
Register at the North House website or call to register over the phone. For more information and a complete schedule of events visit www.northhouse.org or call (888) 387-9762.
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