Haines Junction resident Michael Schmidt had extra reason to celebrate the holiday season.

Last week, he was officially appointed as a member of the Order of Canada.

In an announcement from Governor General Mary Simon last Thursday, Schmidt was recognized with one of Canada’s highest civilian honours “for his contributions to northern science and knowledge in the fields of geology and geodesy, as a geophysicist, photographer and explorer.”

That includes using early GPS technology to measure the height of Canada’s tallest mountain. 

One of 99 appointees for 2023, Schmidt is the sole representative from Canada’s territories this year.

He told the Star Tuesday he received a phone call offering him the award in November, but had to keep it under wraps until last week’s announcement. He said he’s been overwhelmed with congratulatory calls and messages since then.

“It’s amazing how word travels,” he said.

Aside from friends, family and former colleagues, Schmidt said, he’s heard from former high school classmates and teachers in Ottawa, where he spent part of his youth. They hope to see him when he goes to the capital for his award ceremony at a date yet to be determined. Schmidt said all these people are a part of the honour.

“One person is acknowledged, but really, it’s the work of so many other people, at least in my case, and so I really want to make sure that is acknowledged. To me, that’s terribly important.”

Schmidt is currently a photographer in Haines Junction, where he’s resided since 2016, but his career as a geophysicist brought him to the Yukon and other parts of Canada’s North many times since he first visited in 1978.

Starting out in theatre, Schmidt returned to school to study geodesy and survey engineering. (Geodesy is the study of Earth’s figure, orientation in space, and gravity).

His work in these fields, and later photography, gave him lots of opportunity to travel the country, from travelling with theatre productions to researching earthquakes and tectonic plates on the Pacific Coast, not to mention floating on a research station in the Arctic Ocean for half a dozen years.

Schmidt said his work allowed him to absorb Canada’s places and people in all their diversity.

“To carry out research, and all the while being able to ski, climb, canoe and kayak all different parts of Canada and take photos,” he said, “I was extremely lucky.”

One of his greatest professional highlights, Schmidt said, was leading a summit up Canada’s tallest mountain, Mount Logan, in 1992 to determine its height using then-nascent GPS technology.

“The previous satellite surveying technique was very cumbersome in comparison,” Schmidt said, though the gear his team used in 1992 might be described similarly compared to today’s tech – they carried about 40 kg of GPS equipment on their climb to the top.

The new use of satellites to co-ordinate position allowed for an incredibly accurate measurement of the mountain.

After recording their data, Schmidt’s team took over a day to return to base camp, then forwarded their information to Ottawa, where Mount Logan’s peak was determined to be 5,959 metres.

“Things have come a long way,” Schmidt said, noting that today’s GPS measurements can be taken in real time from far lighter equipment.

Schmidt said he first started working with data from satellites in the years leading up to the Mount Logan expedition, and he’s amazed at how far the technology has come since then.

“It was exciting to see back then and it’s exciting to see now.”

Having worked across the country, and taken in so much of its natural beauty and worked with so many of its people, Schmidt said he believes his work lives up to the Order of Canada motto: “they desire a better country.”

Moving to Canada from Denmark at 12 made “the idea of being Canadian” important to him as a child, he said.

That’s what started him in theatre, trying to promote and become part of Canadian culture, he added.

It also ultimately led him to start researching and exploring the country’s immense landscape through the geological work, much of it with the Geological Survey of Canada.

“I ended up working for the government, because to me, it was important to somehow contribute back to our countries, our society. And I was able to do it through my work,” Schmidt said.

“I’m in no way unique here, because there’s a lot of people who feel that drive. That they want to work for the public good.”

Schmidt now focuses on photography and theatre out of his Haines Junction home, where he lives with his wife, Marguerite. He said he’s happy to be living in the Yukon full-time now, after decades of work in Canada’s North.

“The North is a very vibrant and rich area, culturally and physically,” he told the Star.

Having seen so much of the region and the country over the years, Schmidt said he hopes Canadians will continue to research the lands, to appreciate and protect their beauty for future generations.

“These days, as we see the effects of climate change,” he said, “it just becomes, to me at least, that much more important.”

Schmidt said he’s unsure when his award ceremony will take place.

He said he’s heard the COVID-19 pandemic has backed things up, and no date has been decided for it.

But for now, he said, he’s just enjoying the recognition and, even more, the kind words coming in from around the country.

Former NDP premier Tony Penikett was named to the Order in December 2020, but his awards ceremony only took place last month in Ottawa.