Exercise Western Spirit

• CO's Daily Journal
• HMCS Calgary Article
• Route
• Limited Offer Print
• Army News Documentary

Exercise Western Spirit was a 34-day exercise during which 30 members of our unit traversed Western Canada on Light Over Snow Vehicles (LOSVs), commonly called snowmobiles. From the British Columbia coast, the 3,400 km trek reached up to just below the 60th parallel in northern Saskatchewan before ending in Churchill, Manitoba and all in the dead of a Canadian winter!

4 CRPG Rangers from the Manitoba
detachment

The first leg of the journey kicked off on January 26th 2009 with the movement of our Canadian Rangers and full-time staff aboard the Navy´s HMCS Calgary from CFB Esquimalt. In a three-and-a-half day cruise, the ship took our personnel north along the inside passage between Vancouver Island and the mainland British Columbia coast to Kitimat, BC, where they disembarked and prepared for the land trek, arriving there around noon on Jan 29th. In Kitimat the exercise participants linked up with their snowmobiles and advance party folk and after a day of final preparation, began the ride east across northern British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, arriving in Churchill, Manitoba at noon on March 4th.

The Canadian Rangers role is to ensure a military presence in Canada´s northern, coastal and isolated areas that are not conveniently covered by other elements of the Canadian Forces. Exercise Western Spirit was designed to showcase this unit´s capabilities and put to the test the skills and abilities of the Canadian Rangers of 4 CRPG.

And then there was wind chill!

All of our riders were Canadian Rangers from detachments across western Canada or full-time staff from 4 CRPG Headquarters or the provincial Detachment Headquarters. While many of the overnight stops were in communities along the way, other nights were spent under canvas, cooking on our portable stoves at temperatures often approaching minus 50 degrees Celsius!

This exercise was also a great opportunity for us to meet and interact with Canadians en route, some of whom have had very little or no exposure to the Canadian Forces before. The Rangers have a tremendous impact on the lives of people in their local communities and have been recognized for their significant contributions. Many of our Rangers hold leadership positions in their communities, such as mayor, chief, or Canadian Ranger Patrol Commander.

Commanding Officer, Group Sergeant Major and 4 CRPG Rangers
from the Manitoba Detachment on a collective training exercise.
They were out on the ice of the sea, 6 km from land, north of
Churchill. This exercise in 2007 was used as a route recce as
this is part of the route they will be travelling on during
Exercise Western Spirit.

Interested in learning more about Exercise Western Spirit or the Canadian Rangers?

Check out the exercise daily journal. The Commanding Officer, Major Tim Byers regularly checked-in by satellite telephone from our locations along the route to the 4CRPG Operations Centre in Victoria and the journal entry was posted on the web site the same day. "Listen in" as he describes the day´s activities, challenges and achievements during the exercise on this website.