Wintergreen Dogsled Retreat
The New York Times | Ely, Minnesota | 2026
Paul Schurke co-led the 1986 Will Steger expedition to the North Pole. He came home to Ely, Minnesota, and built a dogsled operation that's been running for four decades. Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge isn't a recreation of something. It's the real thing, and the dogs know it.
I spent two days on assignment for The New York Times documenting the lodge, its Canadian Inuit sled dogs, and the particular kind of person drawn to spending a week in the Boundary Waters in February. The Iron Range in winter doesn't offer much softness, and I wasn't looking for it. The light is low, the cold is physical, and the dogs are working animals first, which meant the pictures either happened or they didn't.
Aerial coverage with my drone and FAA Part 107 certification gave the landscape the scale it deserved. On the ground, the challenge was staying close enough to find the quiet moments like a handler's grasp on the leads, a dog's attention locking onto something, or an eagerness to get running without interrupting the rhythm of an operation that doesn't slow down for cameras.