(Summer 2024)
I spent 21 days in Northern Alberta with wildfire management teams refuelling helicopters (mostly 212s, for those who are curious). Most of my clothes still smell like jet fuel. There are currently more than 100 active wildfires burning in the province. The amount of money, manpower, and organization required to keep Canadian towns and cities safe from out-of-control fires is astounding. The forestry teams, firefighters, pilots and camp cooks are nothing short of heroic. Honoured to have met some of the people who keep our province from being smoky the entire summer.
Nice to work outside every day for a few weeks.
It pays to be nice to the cooks.
Boredom is essential.
There’s nothing like leaving home and there’s nothing like coming home.
(Winter 2018)
Alberta is flat as hell, but the landscape isn’t devoid of character. The winters here seem to reveal the way in which Northerners operate in cold climates. Mid-winter temperatures disintegrate the barrier between man and machine by blanketing open land in snow, highlighting the stark industrial culture Albertans rely upon. Power lines, train tracks, spires of vapour, and stretches of highway all contrast with the blinding white landscape that encompasses the homes and lives of Albertans for 7 months of the year. “Pretty” is not the most fitting term for the refineries that skirt the edges of Edmonton, but thousands of lights and massive pillars of smoke claim a triumphant existence in a harsh climate.