• Introduction
• Organizing a Klondike Derby
• Klondike Derby Events
• Gold Rush Towns and Places
•  Contact 

Introduction

The ideas below are based on participation in, and observation of, many styles of Klondike Derbies in many environments. I participated as a Scout in my first Derby in Michigan in 1959. I first helped run a Derby in Alaska in 1971. The deepest snow I have been in for a Derby was about 10 feet (3 meters). The shallowest could best be described as patchy on mostly bare ground with melt water ponds and mud.

The assumption in what follows is that there will be snow on the ground. If there is little or no snow, ordinary camporee contests work just fine. I have not listed any ordinary camporee events unless there is something special about them if they are conducted on or in the snow. Packed snow is slippery and when not packed it impedes movement. It is hard to identify land features in the snow. It is hard to pace distance. Heavy clothing and gloves make simple motions like throwing or swinging an ax much harder. The events described below are influenced by these factors.

Try to remember that boys who live in snow country have a different experience, outlook, and attitude about snow from those who only experience snow by driving to it. It was a major adjustment for me as a boy raised in Michigan to plan events in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for boys raised near San Francisco. We had some boys who lived at sea level, and who had never seen snow, experiencing 5 feet of snow at 7000 feet. For them, just surviving seemed to be a challenge. A simple event was daunting. For the boys in Alaska, who lived with snow for almost half the year, the snow was just another planning element for camping. Simple events were boring.

Finally, these are intended to be ideas about how to structure an event. They are my adaptations of events I have seen or invented for Derbies. Feel free to modify them to fit your personality and your environment. Do your homework and your skull work to create a good story to go with the event. The story is the difference between just another skill demonstration and the wonder and awe of knowing that "those guys" did this for real and their lives depended on it and we can do it too. It is way more exciting to "build a snow survival shelter to save your life in a storm, just like Nansen's Party in the blizzard of '98" than to "dig a hole in the snow and cover it with a tarp".