This is part 4 of a four part series, chronicling one woman’s Tinder dating experience (or lack therof) in the North.  

I heard a rumour that the old pond hockey tournament in Whitehorse was started by a woman seeking to land an Alaskan husband.

I also heard that it worked.

The Buckwheat Ski Classic was designed to bring women in tight leggings from Whitehorse to Skagway. Literally. The organizer said those exact words! At that moment at the sunny starting line, the group of eight Whitehorse women I skied with realized we’d been had.

With only so many single people, let alone fewer on online dating sites, it seems sometimes producing events that bring in new people is a necessary part of the Northern dating game.

Could this be a factor in why we have so many festivals and events?

This small dating pond affects some more than others. A friend told me he researched the ratio of gay men to gay women in the Yukon, because he really felt there was a difference. He said the data he found showed it was 10-1, gay women to gay men. He presented his findings to his family, and he too went away for school. Lots of school, all the way up to Grade 22.

I have to be completely honest and say I’m back in the city for school myself, and all my dating woes have magically disappeared. I got more than 115 Tinder matches in my first several days. Good ones, too. I had to log out because all the chatting and lining up of dates was taking away from other commitments. Graduate school, to be completely honest yet again, was actually originally just a cover for the wonderful world of city dating, because I was done done done with my forever-aloneness in the Yukon.

I share this to emphasize there’s a very strong chance, it’s not you, it’s the Yukon.

After that truth, I don’t really know what else to say. This is by no means an advice column. More of a way to have a dialogue about the unique realities of online dating up North. By creating a space sharing the Yukon Tinder struggle, you can realize you are not alone in being alone.

This is the last article in this series. I’ll leave you with this. While you’ll have way less matches up north, you’ll have exponentially more campfires, aurora borealis, stars, ice-fishing, caribou meat, potlucks, sledding, sundogs, huskies, and statistically speaking, alcohol. And don’t forget that cross-country skiing.

Keep the flame alive!

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