Klondike Derby 2022 – An Early Ending to Another Chilly Event

Every year our district hosts its annual Klondike Derby event. This outdoor competition involves numerous challenges at various “city” locations at Camp Warren Levis. The Scouts have the day (6 hours) to visit as many locations as possible and complete each location’s challenge.

The Klondike event is always held in January, making it (almost always) a chilly event. Ideally, a nice coat of snow would be on the ground, making it easier for each team to pull their sled from one location to the next. There was no snow this year. However, cold temps prior to the event sufficiently froze the surface of the ground. In the absence of snow, that definitely helped the sleds slide across the ground more easily.

Typically we turn this event into a weekend campout. The cold temps definitely make it a unique experience compared to our normal campouts. That said, it’s a great learning experience for our Scouts. They’re able to see how, when approached correctly, they can stay warm and comfortable during the day and at night.

Unfortunately, it is still very difficult to predict what we can and cannot do due to the ever-changing COVID situation. As a result, we opted to just go up for the day. While this was fine, it’s definitely not the same as camping out for the whole weekend. Hopefully next year we can get back to our normal routine. That said, for the past couple of years, our Klondike experiences have been anything but “normal”.

It’s nearly impossible to know what the weather will be like for the Klondike Derby. The attending troops and the event planners have to prepare for just about anything. This is a winter event… By definition, it’s likely not going to be a “nice” day outside. Therefore, this event typically takes place regardless of the weather. That said, the past couple of years have forced some adjustments. Fortunately, despite some threats of ice, the event was able to start as planned. It was definitely cold, and there was the occasional drizzle/rain just to make things interesting, but it was manageable.

Sadly, there was a threat of a winter storm with ice for the afternoon. Snow is one thing, but ice can be very challenging. The event organizers reluctantly decided to end the event a little early to give everyone a chance to get home before the weather hit. While it was a bit unfortunate that the Scouts didn’t have the entire day to visit the different areas, they at least got in as much as they could.

Congrats to our Scouts for battling through the cold and showing great teamwork as they tackled the challenges at each of the areas! A big thanks also to all of the volunteers who helped make this event possible.