A silhouetted sentry with rifle at golden sunrise over a windswept, icy Canadian camp

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Chevalier Tricolore

In the Quebec midwinter, cold is not a condition; it is the adversary. For Exercise Chevalier Tricolore, French mountain troops crossed the Atlantic to train with Canadian soldiers in the boreal forest — snowmobiles in the night, tents heated by stovepipe, rifles that must not be allowed to freeze.

The forest swallows a convoy whole. Between the sled dogs and the frozen waterfalls, beside the ice-choked river, the two armies learn from each other the North’s oldest lesson: before you can fight in this country, you must survive it.

Behind the exercise lies a strategic reality. The polar regions are increasingly coveted — for the resources beneath the ice, and for the shipping lanes that its retreat is opening to world trade. For Western armies, operating in extreme cold is no longer a speciality; it is a requirement of the new geopolitical map.

Soldiers load boxes onto sleds among massed snowmobiles in a bright frigid birch forest — The temperature this morning is −25°C.

Two soldiers in white camouflage ride a snowmobile with cargo sled through heavy snowfall — It drops even lower during the snowmobile ride.

A night snowmobile convoy, headlights strung along a rutted snow trail — The night convoy.

A balaclava-clad soldier with rifle beside snowmobiles at night, faces masked with frost — Frost masks every face.

A cook serves hot food to queued soldiers in a field kitchen tent at night — The field kitchen, the warmest place in the war.

Aerial view of a lone snowmobile dwarfed by vast snow-laden boreal forest — The forest swallows a convoy whole.

A French mountain soldier arranges kit among dozens sleeping on a gymnasium floor — A gymnasium becomes a barracks.

A soldier with headlamp sorts his kit inside a dim tent beside a lantern — Tent life, by lantern and headlamp.

A soldier outside a green arctic tent with smoking stovepipe, snowshoes planted around — The Canadian tents are heated and comfortable.

A French soldier kneels to pet a husky sled dog, dog teams behind in the birch forest — Discovering the sled dogs.

Soldiers ice-climbing a frozen waterfall, a belayer with slung rifle below — The frozen waterfall as training ground.

A Canadian officer on a snow path between snowmobiles and rows of green tents — The Canadian hosts.

A snow-covered Leopard tank outside the Valcartier regiment’s garrison, near Quebec City — The Valcartier regiment, near Quebec City.

A soldier with a France shoulder patch walks a shoreline between huge snow-covered ice blocks — Between the ice blocks, at the edge of the frozen river.