What's happening
20 activities so far. More get added as the event gets closer.
🙋 Volunteer shift
🎯 Newcomer
Volunteer Shift - Help set up the Warming Tent
The Warming Tent is a large hot tent with a wood stove that can fit around 15 people. We use it for workshops and activity throughout Freezing Woman, as well as just warming up. Andrea needs a handful of people to assist her to set it up. You do not need prior experience. And she will train you everything you need to know. The first 7 volunteers will receive a free tree level membership for Ripples and Leaves for 1 year.
🧶 Craft
🎯 Newcomer
Turkey Tail Hand Brooms
Broom corn and a live demo are all you need to walk away with a hand broom you'll actually use, in your car, your tent, or wherever else it's handy. Have corn left over? Bitty can show you how to turn it into a scrub brush or a set of cake testers too. $20 per person, paid directly to Bitty, covers your supplies.
🍽️ Meal
🎯 Newcomer
Fireside Stew and Newcomer Welcome
Arriving at Freezing Woman? Your warm welcome awaits! A Freezing Woman tradition - Andrea’s hearty fish stew, simmered over the open fire. It's the perfect way to warm your hands and fill your belly after your journey. While you eat, we'll hold an informal orientation for anyone new to the event. Get the lay of the land, ask questions, learn some tips for a great weekend, and meet some friendly faces. For many, this has become the essential first stop to kick off their Freezing Woman experience. Heads-Up: We'll start serving as folks arrive and go until the pot is empty (serves about 30). First come, first welcomed!
🧶 Craft
🎯 Newcomer
Travel Sketching and Watercolour
A sketchbook is one of the lightest things you can carry, and it holds a trip in a way a photo doesn't. In this workshop, Tricia walks a group through a simple way to record the places you travel, using tools that fit in a small pouch: a pencil, a pen, paper, and a small set of watercolours. You don't need to draw well. The point is to get something down on the page, a rough shape, a few lines, a note about the light. A watercolour wash over top pulls it together, and even the plainest doodle starts to look like a memory worth keeping. Bring a notebook and any pens or paints you already own. If you're starting from nothing, come anyway, there will be materials to share.
🎓 Workshop
🎯 Newcomer
Tie It, Trust It: Knots and Tarp Skills
Two hours, and you'll walk away able to pitch your own shelter with confidence. The first hour is knots, just the handful you actually need, tied enough times that your hands remember them. The second hour is tarps, where those knots go to work. We'll set up a few different configurations so you can see what changes with the weather and the site you've got. Bring some cordage if you have a favourite, otherwise we'll have what you need.
🙋 Volunteer shift
🎯 Newcomer
Volunteer Shift - Help set up the Market
When we set up the market, we need to set up folding tables, with table cloths, and arrange a small number of chairs. And bring in a few bins of things needed for the market. Many hands make light work. Volunteering for this shift earns you a free year of Ripples and Leaves Tree level membership.
🔥 Gathering
🎯 Newcomer
Freezing Woman Market
Your one-stop shop for outdoor adventure! Kick off the weekend by exploring this curated market featuring innovative regional gear vendors and talented local makers. It's the perfect place to find unique treasures and gear up for the season.
🔥 Gathering
🎯 Newcomer
Meet the Authors
Kevin Callan and Hap Wilson are back again this year, signing books at the market table. New this year: Brenda Missen, author of Tumblehome. Bring a book from home or pick one up at the market, either way, come by and say hello.
🙋 Volunteer shift
🎯 Newcomer
Volunteer Shift - Pack up the Market
When we pack up the market, we need to break down folding tables, fold and store table cloths, and stack the chairs. And carry out the bins of things used for the market. Many hands make light work. Volunteering for this shift earns you a free year of Ripples and Leaves Tree level membership.
🍽️ Meal
🎯 Newcomer
The Epic Freezing Woman Potluck Feast!
It's the culinary heart of the weekend! Join us for our most beloved tradition: the Friday night potluck. Witness the magic as we all come together to create a sprawling banquet with dozens of delicious, homemade dishes. From hearty mains and warming stews to creative salads and decadent desserts, it's a true testament to the talent and generosity of this community. Bringing a food item, come by at 4pm Only eating, come by at 5pm Please bring your own re-usable bowl, and cutlery to help minimize garbage. Thank you! If you contribute a dish to share, please be sure to label it with all ingredients so our friends with dietary needs can feast safely and happily. With everyone's contribution, we'll create an incredible spread with something for every palate!
🎓 Workshop
🎯 Newcomer
Making Fire without a Lighter
A lighter is easy. This is what you do when the lighter is gone, wet, or was never in the pack to begin with. We start with the rocks. Certain stones throw a fat orange spark when you strike them against steel, and once your eye is trained, you'll spot them on half the trails you walk. Then tinder: what to gather, how to tease it into something that will take a spark, and how to tell dry from almost-dry, which is the difference between a fire and a morning of frustration. Last comes the ferro rod, the one piece of kit worth its weight. We'll practise the strike until a flame comes up under your own hands, not the instructor's. Everything you need is provided. Bring your own ferro rod, flint kit, or carbon or stainless steel knife if you have one, and spend the session getting comfortable with the tools you'd actually carry.
🔥 Gathering
🎯 Newcomer
Fireside Stories and Poems
An evening of reading out loud, around the community fire pit. Bring something you love: a poem, a page from a book, a paragraph that stuck with you, by a woman author or written by you. Keep each piece under three minutes. If the night runs long and everyone has had a turn, come back for a second or a third. Sign up ahead of time so we can put together a running order. Come to listen even if you are not reading. There is usually room by the fire, and it is a good way to spend a cold evening. We could use a hand keeping the fire fed through the readings. If that is you, say so when you sign up.
🔥 Gathering
🎯 Newcomer
The Freezing Woman 8 Group Picture!
Be a piece of our history! Each year, our group photo serves as a stunning visual testament to a wonderful community that keeps growing. This is the one moment we all come together to create a snapshot that captures the incredible energy and scale of Freezing Woman. Be a part of this fun tradition. Your face belongs in this moment!
🎤 Presentation
🎯 Newcomer
Keynote: Timeless Stories with Jennifer Kingsley
Jennifer Kingsley is a journalist, storyteller, and National Geographic Explorer who has been traveling the Arctic for more than twenty years. In 2005 she spent fifty days paddling the Baillie and Back Rivers to the Arctic Ocean, a trip she wrote about in Paddlenorth: Adventure, Resilience, and Renewal in the Arctic Wild, winner of the National Outdoor Book Award. She currently works as a Cultural Specialist with National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions. Her latest project documents the resurgence of traditional Polynesian star navigation in the Cook Islands, for a forthcoming book from HarperCollins. These talks will fill to capacity. Ripples and Leaves Members are seated first.
🎤 Presentation
🎯 Newcomer
Keynote: Timeless Stories with Natalia Rybczynski
Natalia Rybczynski is a paleobiologist and Research Associate with the Canadian Museum of Nature, and an Adjunct Research Professor at Carleton University. Her work is part of PoLAR-FIT, piecing together what ancient Arctic ecosystems looked like from fossil remains preserved in permafrost. In 2013 she announced one of her best known finds: fossil fragments from Ellesmere Island belonging to a High Arctic camel, about 3.5 million years old, which pushed the known range of camels 1,200 kilometres further north than anyone expected. She's also part of the team behind Puijila darwini, a 20 to 24 million year old "walking seal," and last fall's discovery of a High Arctic rhino, Epiaceratherium itjilik. Rybczynski's fieldwork, and her life since a skiing accident in 2011, are the subject of "Frozen in Time," a CBC documentary. It isn't a story of full recovery. It's an ongoing one. These talks will fill to capacity. Ripples and Leaves Members are seated first.
🎓 Workshop
🎯 Newcomer
Mapping Our Place in the Natural World
Presented by Headwaters Wilderness Program, in this workshop we will discover a new way of getting-to-know nature that goes beyond our regular perception. Working together, we will create unique collaborative maps of a place. No ordinary maps, ours will focus on time and relationships rather than space and abstraction. Join this workshop, and you will never look at the natural world the same way again. Meet at the Warming Tent, and we'll walk to the Airfield together
🙋 Volunteer shift
🎯 Newcomer
Volunteer Shift - Help run the Chili Night Kitchen
We need 6 to 8 people to run the kitchen for Chili Night. Come to Site 7 in the afternoon to chop, stir, and mind the pots.
🍽️ Meal
🎯 Newcomer
Chili Night in Canada
This is the meal where we thank everyone whose work went into Freezing Woman 8: volunteers, workshop and activity hosts, speakers, and the people who kept things running in the background. Saturday night, back at camp after the keynotes. We set up a community kitchen on Site 7 and cook several large pots of chili, at least one of them meat-free. Cornbread, a toppings table, and something sweet after. Ripples & Leaves pays for the ingredients. Everyone is welcome to eat. If you hosted or volunteered this year, you are the guest of honour. Short thanks at 6pm, then we serve until the pots are empty. First come, first fed. Bring your own bowl and spoon. Sign up so we know how many we are feeding. Cooks needed. We need 6 to 8 people to run the kitchen. Come to Site 7 in the afternoon to chop, stir, and mind the pots. Sign up separately for a cooking spot.
🧶 Craft
🎯 Newcomer
Stitch and Chat in the Warming Tent
Bring whatever you're making and work on it in company. The woodstove will be going in the Warming Tent, and there's room to sit for an hour or the whole evening. Knitting, crochet, mending, hand sewing, whatever is in your bag. It isn't a workshop and no one is teaching. It's a few hours to sit with your hands busy and talk, or not talk, while the tent stays warm. Come even if you didn't bring a project. There's spare yarn and a few needles to lend, and someone who can get you started. You're welcome to come just for the company and the heat.
🙋 Volunteer shift
🎯 Newcomer