Arctic bound

I leave for the Arctic tomorrow morning. I will be serving as Chief Mountain Leader on a BSES youth development Expedition. If you would like to follow along during the 3-week expedition, you can read updates on the expedition blog at http://blog.bses.org.uk/arcticadventure2011/.

Three Peaks Challenge Success

On June 25/26th I and seven other Ambassadorial Scholars along with two Rotarians (drivers) completed the Three Peaks Challenge (a mountain-endurance challenge in Great Britain, with a history of over 40 years, in which participants attempt to climb the highest peaks of each of the island's three countries). We started at Ben Nevis in Scotland, then drove down to Scafell Pike in England and finished on Snowden, in Wales. We took about 28 hours total time.

The purpose of the challenge was to raise funds and awareness for the international disaster relief charity ShelterBox. Our team of scholars raised over $6,000 USD (3,780 GBP), enough to fund over 6 complete Shelter Boxes.

It was a great time on the three mountains, experiencing virtually the full range of UK weather (below freezing wind on Ben Nevis, wet wet on Scafell, and glorious sunshine on Snowden). I enjoyed getting to know the other scholars and hearing about their time in the UK and their plans for the future.

I've uploaded several pictures here to show you what it was like, in case you're wondering, the large green box that we took turns carrying (the whole way) is an empty Shelter Box. We received lots of puzzled stares and comments like "You must be truly mad!" and we were able to tell many people about the great work that ShelterBox and Rotary do around the world. Thanks so much to the many family and friends that supported me and our team. Your support is much appreciated. In a small way I feel that I've been able to give something back to the many Rotarians in Scotland and in District 5050 (Washington and B.C.) that have played such a large role in my scholarship year.

ShelterBox Disaster Relief - Three Peaks Challenge Fundraising

Event: The Three Peaks Challenge on the 25th of June

Charity: ShelterBox

Fundraisers: As many Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars as possible

The Plan: In order to raise funds and awareness for Shelter Box, we will be climbing the three highest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales within 24 hours.

To make the challenge even tougher we will be carrying original Shelter Boxes. They will represent the ShelterBoxes that have been sent to disaster areas to provide refief for those who lost their homes.

It costs £590 to deliver one valuable box to people who are mostly in need. On our way up and down the three peaks we will try hard to overcome difficult terrain and to finally deliver the boxes across the finish line. We want to demonstrate the immense effort that is made to bring relief to victims of natural hazards.

What is ShelterBox?

ShelterBox provides emergency shelter and lifesaving supplies for families around the world who are affected by disasters at the time when they need it the most.The ShelterBox solution in disaster response is as simple as it is effective.

We deliver the essentials a family needs to survive in the immediate aftermath of a disaster.

Each large, green ShelterBox is tailored to a disaster but typically contains a disaster relief tent for an extended family, blankets, water storage and purification equipment, cooking utensils, a stove, a basic tool kit, a children’s activity pack and other vital items.

Please help us raise funds to allow ShelterBox to meet the needs of families countries around the world. My personal goal is to raise 1180 Pounds to provide funds for two ShelterBoxes. If you would like to donate click on this link (www.justgiving.com/JerryIsaak/) or on links throughout this page

Rotary on Facebook

For those of you that are on Facebook, my home club, the Rotary Club of Abbotsford Sumas, has just launched a Facebook page so that people can connect with them and follow along with the clubs activities. There are some excellent photos of the Strawberry Sale Fundraiser 2010. Check it out!

The end of the autumn semester has arrived along with unseasonably cold weather here in Edinburgh, Scotland. Our family is staying warm in our little flat near Holyrood Park and bundling up when we go outside to enjoy the snow and fresh air. It is quite a change from when I arrived in Edinburgh almost four months ago.

After arriving in Scotland, a few weeks before my course officially began, I traveled up to Fort William in the Highlands to climb Ben Nevis (the highest peak in the United Kingdom). I was blessed with excellent weather and had a great time exploring the iconic highland landscape.

When my course officially started we set out almost immediately on a five-day canoe descent of the River Spey, from near the headwaters all the way to Spey Bay on the North Sea. The canoe trip provided the opportunity to connect with classmates and to engage with the faculty on a very personal level. It was a powerful learning experience that set a very positive tone for the rest of the semester. The 14 full-time students on the course are from Scotland, USA, Canada, Hungary, England, and Northern Ireland.

Alongside my academic commitments I have been engaged with my host Rotarian, fellow Ambassadorial Scholars and Rotarians from throughout Scotland. The first official event was an International Evening hosted by the Rotary Club of Portobello. All the visiting Ambassadorial Scholars were invited to an evening of Scottish culture, dance and food. Since that evening the Ambassadorial Scholars (from Canada (x2), USA (x4), Japan (x2), Germany (x1), Australia (x1)) have gathered informally at several occasions, including American Thanksgiving. We were all at the Rotary District 1020 Conference in Aviemore. At the District Conference I, along with the other scholars, gave a brief interview about where I’m from and what I am doing in Scotland. As a result of the interview, before about 800 Rotarians, I have received numerous invitations to speak at Rotary Clubs throughout the District. I’m looking forward to visiting these clubs in the New Year.

A highlight of my time in Edinburgh was attending the Scotland vs. New Zealand international rugby match with a Rotarian I met at the District conference. The Scotland side lost badly to the world number one New Zealand All-Blacks but I enjoyed the game and the opportunity to get to know Mike Duguid, from the Rotary Club of Kirkubright in southern Scotland.

My wife, Katie, and our two sons, Quinn (age 2) and Beckett (5 months), have also been adjusting to living in a new country. Our highlight as a family has been the trips to the farm of my host Rotarian, John Burnett, from the Rotary Club of Peebles. John, and his wife Nan, have been superb hosts and a real blessing to our family. Their farm is a 1,000-acre sheep farm in the Borders of Scotland. Quinn, our two year old loves going for walks to find sheep and cows, and down to “the wee burn” (translation: the small creek) where he throws rocks into the water. We will be spending a portion of the Christmas break with the Burnett’s, and we are very thankful for this home away from home.


Quinn at the wee burn.

When I left for Scotland in August I knew that I would likely have the opportunity to travel to other countries, but I did not anticipate the magnitude of the opportunities that would appear. In Spring of 2011 (May 21 – June 4) the students from the MSc Outdoor Education program will be traveling to Morocco to undertake a two-week trekking expedition in the High Atlas Mountains. This expedition is being planned and completed in fulfillment of requirements for the degree. I am looking forward to journeying in the unique landscape of North Africa and to meeting the Berber people who live and work in the Atlas Mountains.



The Atlas mountains in Morocco.

The next expedition will take me north, to the Arctic island archipelago of Svalbard. I will be volunteering, as Senior Mountain Leader, on a British Schools Exploring Society (BSES) Arctic Expedition.

BSES Expeditions is a youth development charity that organises challenging scientific expeditions to remote, wild environments to develop the confidence, teamwork, leadership and spirit of adventure and exploration of its Young Explorers.

Based at the Royal Geographical Society, BSES Expeditions (The British Schools Exploring Society) was founded in 1932 by a member of Captain Scott’s final Antarctic Expedition of 1910-13.

Each year young people aged 16-23, from different schools, universities and many other walks of life, join together to take part in valuable adventure and environmental research projects in challenging areas of the world from the heights of the Himalayas to the heat of the Arabian desert, and from the valleys and glaciers of the Arctic to the lakes and rivers of the Amazon (BSES webpage, www.bses.org.uk).

This expedition, though not required for my degree, will provide the basis for my research leading to the completion of my master’s thesis. In addition to the expedition in the arctic I will be helping to lead and participating in four training weekends that will take place, for BSES staff and students, in Scotland and England.


With a population of 3,000, the polar bears on Svalbard outnumber the local humans by about 300.

It has been a busy semester, full of academic, Rotary, family and extra-curricular responsibilities. I am looking forward to the coming year and all that it will bring. I have attempted to keep the blog updated, and will continue to add posts throughout the New Year.

Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for 2011!

Hills and Mountains and mountains of reading...

It has been a few weeks since my last post. As might be inferred, correctly, I have been extremely busy during that time. In addition to completing two academic courses and one field course I had the privilege of attending the Portobello Rotary Club's International Night. This weekend I will be attending the Rotary District 1020 (Southern Scotland) District Conference in Aviemore. I'll have the opportunity, along with the other Edinburgh based Ambassadorial Scholars, to give a short interview at the conference for the approximately 600 Rotarians from clubs throughout District 1020.

I've attached a few photos from the recent 'Hills and Mountains' course that was held in the Cairngorm mountain range. It is a beautiful area with dramatic cliffs, waterfalls and lochs. We had typically Scottish weather, which is to say we had a little bit of everything and a lot of what the Scots call 'dreich' (pronounced dree-chh).

The picture below is an example of dreich.


Lunch break above Loch Avon (pronounced Ann)


Me and three classmates taking a break on the summit of Ben Macdui, the second highest mountain in the United Kingdom.


Negotiating dreich and wet boulders above Coire an t-Sneachda


We spent about half an hour trying to figure out what the large blue patches in the sky were...still not sure. Our guess was clear sky and sunshine but we couldn't be sure.


Just so you don't get the wrong impression of how most of my time is spent, I've included a picture of the mountains that I'm normally climbing. Stacks and stacks of reading interspersed with writing has been the order of the day for the past two weeks. This weekend is a brief break, only a little reading while at the conference, before another two week sprint to the assignment deadlines.

Descending the River Spey

This past week I was on a field course with the Outdoor Education Masters Program at the University of Edinburgh. The course was titled "Lochs and Rivers" and included a five day descent of the River Spey. The Spey is famous for the many whisky distilleries that line it's 70 miles, and for the Atlantic Salmon fishing along it's banks. Our method of travel was in open canoes. We camped along the river at campsites that were often near small villages.

Our last night on the river found us at the village of Craigellachie, near the town of Aberlour, where I had a uniquely Scottish experience. With two of my classmates, who happened to be Scottish, I walked from our campsite across the River Fiddich, to the Fiddichside Inn. The Inn is a small one room pub that is been owned and operated by a man named Joe. Joe has been there for 51 years and also serves as the bartender. When my friends and I arrived at the pub there were four locals already there. We ordered our drinks, a local Speyside single malt called Aberlour, and were engaged in conversation about Canada and the unique connection that British Columbia in particular has with the village of Craigellachie. In B.C., Craigellachie is known for being the home of "the last spike" of the Canadian Pacific Railway that connected all of Canada on November 7, 1885. The connection with the little village in Scotland is Sir George Stephen, the first president of the CPR. The little village on the Spey was Sir Stephen's ancestral home. That tenuous connection between myself, a Canadian whose grandparents didn't even arrive in Canada until more than 35 years after the last spike, and the residents of the little village on the Spey, served as the spark for conversation. Soon Joe opened a drawer below the bar and pulled out an envelope with 20 year old pictures of the Craigellachie in B.C. Joe had never been to Canada, but received the photos from a friend who had traveled through B.C. in the early 1980's. As for my personal connection with the site of the last spike, I have been past it numerous times, most recently about two months ago on my return from climbing on Mount Sir Donald in Rogers Pass. I was exhausted from the climb and pulled into the parking lot at Craigellachie to sleep for an hour before continuing home. The ambiance in the bar and the conversation about far away places made for a memorable evening in a unique and special place.

My role as an Ambassadorial Scholar for Rotary International has been a natural extension of these encounters with people I meet throughout my time here in Edinburgh. It has been a joy to get to know people here in Scotland and to represent the people who sent me. My first official Rotary event will be next Saturday at a get-together of the eight Rotary Scholars who are studying in Edinburgh with their host Rotarians. I have met three of the other seven, and look forward to meeting the others.

This next week I begin my first Edinburgh based course, titled "Interpreting the Landscape". I am looking forward to the course but anticipating Thursday even more. My wife and our two sons arrive on Thursday morning and will be here to stay. I can guarantee that I will be the happiest man in Edinburgh next Thursday. It will mark the true start to my adventures here, for it has been incomplete until now. My Thursday, and Katie and the boys, arrive safely and quickly!