I had a great trip to Alberta for the Frostbite Symposium. For my keynote I talked about using instructional design principles in designing outdoor education programming. There was a lively Q and A session at the end of the talk, which always feels good if you are speaking. At least some of the audience managed to stay awake!

It was a lot of fun seeing old friends and alumni. A huge thank you to Dragan Uzelac for housing me, feeding me, etc. during my stay. We had a lot of great laughs.

Since getting back I have been preparing for our winter courses. This has included moving a bunch of snow, getting the snowmobile ready, and answering a bunch of calls and emails.

One nice thing about returning home is the welcome you get from your neighbors. As I was out shoveling snow the ravens flew by and chatted me up for a bit, and the barred owl who was hanging around last fall sat nearby in a big white pine and watched me shovel.

In the photo is a homemade geared rope maker I saw at Frostbite. It is on my list of projects to build one.