Kinds of Winter: Four Solo Journeys by Dogteam in Canada's Northwest Territories

After a fifteen-year career as a sled dog racer, musher Dave Olesen turned his focus away from competition and set out to fulfill a lifelong dream.

Over the course of four successive winters he steered his dogs and sled on long trips away from his remote Northwest Territories homestead, setting out in turn to the four cardinal compass points―south, east, north, and west―and home again to Hoarfrost River.

Olesen's narrative ranges from the personal and poignant musings of a dogsled driver to loftier planes of introspection and contemplation. He describes his journeys day by day, but this book is not merely an account of his travels. Neither is it yet another offering in the genre of "wide-eyed southerner meets the Arctic," because Olesen is a firmly rooted northerner, having lived and travelled in the boreal outback for over thirty years. Olesen's life story colours his writing: educated immigrant, husband and father, professional dog musher, working bush pilot, and denizen of log cabins far off the grid. He and his dogs feel at home in country lying miles back of beyond.

This book demolishes many of the clich s that imbue writings about bush life, the Far North, and dogsledding. It is a unique blend of armchair adventure, personal memoir, and thoughtful, down-to-earth reflection.

Dave Olesen has a B.A. in Humanities and Northern Studies. A veteran dog musher, he finished the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race eight times. Olesen has lived since 1987 on the northeast tip of Great Slave Lake with his wife, Kristen, and thirty huskies. He works as a bush pilot and guide. Kinds of Winter is his fourth book. His 1994 collection North of Reliance was re-published in a 2016 edition by Raven Productions of Ely Minnesota.