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Dale-Harris Hugh

Contact :

Websites : Own website / BC Expedition website / CBC News / Pour Parler Profession / Antarctica.org / The Washington Post / Explorersweb /


Hugh Dale-Harris (32) is a teacher and musher (dog-sledger) and lives in Thunder Bay, Ontario with his partner Amy and their 20-month-old daughter Wynne and his dog team.

His love for the outdoors and teaching began as a swimming, sailing, windsurfing and water-skiing instructor at summer camp. Later he decided to get his teaching degree and continue his passion for educating people in the wilderness. Since graduating in 1995, he has worked year round at outdoor centres teaching canoeing, rock climbing, hiking, kayaking, white water rafting, fishing, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.

In 1996 Hugh started working for the Canadian Outward Bound Wilderness School. Eighteen months later he took part in his first dog-sledging trip and has never looked back. Since then he has led dog sledging trips for Outward Bound as well as accumulating hundreds of solo dog sledging miles in Northern Ontario and Quebec with his own team of Canadian Inuit Dogs.

The highlight of his mushing career to date took place in 2004 when he took part in a groundbreaking 3000-mile dog sledging journey across Canada’s frozen north. The expedition lasted over five months, recording important climate data for NASA.

Apart from dog sledging, Hugh really enjoys fishing and white water canoeing, especially in remote areas of northern Ontario. A lot of his canoeing trips take him to some breathtaking fishing grounds. Hugh’s favourite fish is the pickerel, which is found below the larger rapids – “it tastes fantastic cooked over a roaring camp fire” says the big man.

Source : Barclays Capital Expedition website

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Hugh Dale-Harris is an educator, photographer and adventurer who lives in Nolalu, Ontario with his partner Amy, their 3-year-old daughter Wynne, baby coming in October of 2005, and their two former sled dog pets, Esker and Trooper. His love for the outdoors and teaching began at summer camp and later decided to get his teaching degree and continue his passion for educating people in the wilderness.

Since graduating in 1995, he has worked year round at outdoor schools such as Outward Bound Canada. His work using wilderness skills as a vehicle have people learn how to take risks, push their comfort zones, overcome challenges, develop interpersonal skills and expand their leadership potential has been extremely invigorating and rewarding for him. Hugh’s work in the outdoors has taken him to remote, pristine and breathtaking areas of Ontario, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and the Yukon. This is when Hugh’s passion for photography developed. It began by simply documenting the beauty around him. Then, from the feedback of friend, family and professionals, he began to realize the potential his photographs have in affecting and, in a sense, educating people.
He sees his photographs as ways of capturing moments, evoking emotion, and embodying the essence of people and places. Some of Hugh’s work consists of photos taken on unique wilderness expeditions. His hope is for the viewer to be riveted by the subject matter and also be moved by the sense of risk and adventure that are a part of the images.

Two of these expeditions are Arctic dog sledding expeditions. The first took place in 2004 when he took part in a 3,000 km dog sledding journey across the Canadian Arctic. The expedition lasted over five months, recording the Inuit Elders’ perspective on climate change and delivering an online K-12 education program to approximately 3 million learners. The second took place in 2005 when Hugh joined the Barclay’s Capital Ultimate North Team, in an attempt to prove that Robert Peary and his party were the first to the Pole in 1909. The team added to the stack of evidence by arriving at the North Pole by dog team on April 26, 2005, within 3 hours of Peary’s time. Hugh’s passion for the Arctic, however, began several years before these expeditions. His experience teaching in Iglulik, Nunavut in 1999 caught him a case of the Arctic bug. These expeditions afforded him an opportunity to revisit the Inuit culture he values so much and plans to include education in the North as a part of his Master’s in Education this year. Hugh also is and avid fisherman and white water canoeist, who especially enjoys travelling in remote areas of northern Ontario. A lot of his canoe trips take him to some breathtaking photographic opportunities and fishing grounds. Hugh’s favourite fish is the pickerel, which is found below the larger rapids – “it tastes fantastic cooked over a roaring camp fire” says Hugh.

Source : Own website