Cheer on Yukon dogs as they face off in a wacky howling competition. Taste sourdough pancakes with warm maple syrup. Stomp on the snow to the beat of fiddles. Laugh at the wife-carrying competitors. Stroll downtown shops that look like Klondike saloons and brothels. You’ve got a date with the Sourdough Rendezvous in Whitehorse.
Unleash your inner child, don a feather boa or a bowler hat and party with eccentric northerners as they stampede outside for a week in February to shrug off the cabin fever of a long winter. Take in crazy, old-time competitions like axe throwing and chainsaw chucking for gold-nugget prizes. Help judge the hairy-leg contest. Walk into the town bank—find yourself in the middle of a gold-rush “melodrama” complete with a damsel in distress. It’s all part of the festivities.
Dine on fresh, northern cuisine, listen to local musicians like the Snowshoe Shufflers and spin the wheel at a honky-tonk casino. Then head to bed under a sky ribboned with red, green and yellow Northern Lights, which shimmy like a can-can dancer’s gaudy crinolines.
