Live Life In Tents' Blog is dedicated to helping people get out to explore Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Top picks of food, travel
&
adventures. Camping, Hiking, Fishing, Paddle Boarding, Kayaking, and more.
Building BASECAMP: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Cape Breton’s New Winter Refuge
In the fall of 2024, I started building a pitch for Parks Canada. The vision was to establish a temporary winter camping village on the backside of Franey Mountain—something inspired by The North Face’s annual winter basecamps out west. The concept was simple: a snowshoe- or ski-in-only destination that could serve as a jumping-off point for alpine missions, cross-country ski loops, snowshoe routes to White Hill, or just a unique place to spend a few nights off-grid.
On guiding: why hire a guide for your backcountry adventure?
A guiding service has many different layers to it (keep in mind that I am a guide, writing a blog on why guides are worth paying for). I will attempt to portray the information in which you see the value added by having a guide, both for yourself and for the environment.
Our easy 4-step guide to backcountry winter camping
In everybody’s journey into hiking, the backcountry is an inventible progression to going further and seeing more. Backcountry hiking doesn’t have to be anything crazy; some stay away from it because they simply don’t know where to start or think it’s beyond their current experience level. We’re here to tell you that heading backcountry can be accessible for all experience levels and have a simple 4 step plan to help you get there.
The White Hill Gang - 5 Days Winter Camping in the Cape Breton Highlands
Any backcountry camping trip can be a humbling experience but, winter backcountry camping is a whole other beast. It teaches you the need for efficiency in everything you do. Wasted time means wasted energy and that means you get cold… fast. You need to take care of the small things so they don’t compound into major issues. So as much as you think you’ve mastered your kit and preparation, mother nature will literally throw that upside down and make you start again until you are a well-oiled, efficient, machine… I mean it’s either that or you freeze. That is the true beauty of it all.