Bear started winter camping as a high school senior. In 36 years of winter camping, he has spent over 800 nights exploring a wide variety of snow-covered landscapes including: the Yukon, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and of course throughout the Midwest. His favorite place to hide from the real world is the BWCA where he’s spent more 650 of those nights. Bear has hosted an annual BWCA New Year’s Trip for 24 years and counting. Also, somewhat unique among winter travellers is that Bear actively enjoys both cold camping and hot tenting.

Bear has also canoed extensively throughout North America from Nunavut to the Northwest Territories, from Alaska to the Yukon, from Montana to Florida. He is committed to introducing his young son to the outdoors too. Before Dashwa entered kindergarten this fall he was already experienced in the wilderness. He’s travelled 3500 miles and spent over 200 nights camping on canoe trips. By canoe Dashwa has spent a month above the Arctic Circle, paddled to Hudson Bay, and traced all of Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior. Bear is the General Manager at Northstar Canoes.

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As a child of camp directors, Pam Wright’s early life was steeped in the outdoors of eastern Montana and woodlands of northern Minnesota. For the past 20 years she’s been adventuring and leading others into the BWCAW and other backcountry locations throughout the US and Canada. When she’s not dipping a paddle, she enjoys ultra-running, winter camping and backpacking. She takes joy in introducing everyone to the beauty of the north country, hoping that they too will be caught in the wonder of the wild. She currently works as a guide for Women’s Wilderness Discovery in Ely, MN as well as a volunteer leader for Thrive Women’s Outdoor Adventures, Hudson, WI.
Soka Outdoors 

Pete Brautigam has been a winter camping symposium board member since 2020. He is an avid winter camper in the back country pulling his toboggan solo or with a crew. Owner of Brautigam Expedition Works LLC. He will be sharing information that get into the science of our gear and his solo travels.

www.brautigamexpeditionworks.com

Greg Wilcox is the co-founder of Country Ways and for the past twenty-five years has brought us the very best in showshoe kits and finished outdoor equipment. Greg will be teaching a seminar on snowshoe lacing and repair. 

Ben’s full time job is testing, researching, and selling tools and outdoor goods for life in the north woods. He uses hand tools like axes, hand-saws, and knives daily for fishing, hunting, foraging, self reliance, and primitive bushcraft. His goods can be found at Bensbackwoods.com 

Sydney Tanner and Jim Nosker are Azen Lodge Outfitters and Winter Camping Symposium board members. They’re parents of 10 children, have been cooking together, for groups, for decades. They’ve camped from coast to coast, from the rain forests of Central America to the Arctic Circle, in all seasons. They’ve hiked, backpacked, run dog teams, skied, showshoed, canoed, kayaked, hunted, fished and trapped at one time or another throughout their lives and have been long term Boy Scout leaders.

They will be hosting the kids program this year. 

Don is the proprietor and owner of the Four Dog Stove Company. He has been designing and building portable wood stoves for the past 23 years. From a 2¼oz titanium back-packing stove to a large steel stoves that can heat a 14’ x 20’ wall tent at -30 below. He is known as the leading innovator in trail stove design and construction. All stoves are hand crafted with his wife, Roxanne on their back 40 acre Minnesota-based workshop/farm, where they enjoy family, friends, raising a large garden, chickens and working their mules. Don’s passion for creating time tested and proven items for use in the harshest wilderness conditions is evident by the testimonials of hunters, trappers, outfitters, guides and adventures throughout the globe.

Four Dog Stoves 

Jim Bishop lives in Spooner, WI. is a long time winter camper whose excursions focuses on lakes with fish.  He has ice fished in Canada, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montana and Lake Superior.  A board member of FISH - Friends Into Spooner Hatchery - a friends group of the state hatchery, where they put on fishing programs for youth and elderly.  He is retired Public Affairs Manager with the WI- Department of Natural Resources. 

Joe is a lifelong outdoors enthusiast, with a deep interest in the natural world. Camping trips as a child set the stage for countless family trips as an adult. Winter camping started on a whim, as a way to get outside during the cold, and has quickly become a favorite. Over a decade of winter camping with his wife Lori has imparted a wealth of knowledge and experience on what works for them. Joe's approach is pragmatic and practical. A woodworker by trade, Joe's hobbies include boatbuilding, paddling, hiking, biking, and pretty much anything outdoors. 

Mark Morgen moved to Grand Marais, MN 6 years ago to be closer to the Superior National Forest and the BWCAW.  Utilizing this amazing resource year round, he canoes, camps, snowshoes, fishes, skis, and also takes many pictures.  He is a wilderness guide in the summer, bringing the joy of canoe camping to many newcomers, and a boat builder and a sailor. When not in the woods, he can be found in his workshop finishing his latest canoe, or out sailing Lake Superior on his sailboat. 

Empire Wool and Canvas Company

https://empirecanvasworks.com/

Kevin Kinney is the owner of Empire Wool and Canvas Company. He's a pathologically creative outdoor industry veteran who's equally at home

in the mountains, on trail, or on the water. Kevin works from his cottage home in Duluth, MN.

Sparky Stensaas actually started the Winter Camping Symposium waaaay back in 1999 when he was Buyer/Marketing Director at Duluth Pack. He is the founder and executive director of Friends of Sax-Zim Bog (www.SaxZim.org) which has purchased & preserved over 25,000 acres of bog creating a Forever Home for future generations of birds and birders. A birder since age 14, Sparky is also a naturalist, publisher of field guides, wildlife photographer and now YouTuber (really?). He is the author of 6 books on the natural history of the North Woods. Sparky, his wife, Bridget, and two sons, Birk and Bjorn, make their home under the big pines in the Nemadji Valley in northern Minnesota. You can see more of Sparky's images at www.sparkyphotos.com and his bird/wildlife videos on YouTube “Sparky Stensaas” 

We are working parents (and now family travel bloggers) with busy schedules and active young kids who love camping and traveling the world. We believe the world is run by those who show up, and make sure that the four of us show up every day with open minds and open hearts.

Our goal is to inspire other families to travel even when it can feel expensive, time consuming, or unattainable. All it takes is an open mind, some motivation, and at least one individual in the household that can plan!

From Tent to Takeoff