The Speakers
Bear Paulsen
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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Michael Neiger
Michael Neiger lives in Marquette, Michigan, along the south of shore of Lake Superior. Since 1984, he has organized and led 100's of backpacking, canoeing, mountain biking, skiing, snowshoeing, winter-camping, and caving trips and expeditions in the bush between the Upper Great Lakes in Michigan and the Arctic Ocean in Canada.
He has skied solo from the end of the northern-most plowed road in Ontario, Canada to the Arctic Ocean, and has paddled solo from the Lake Superior area to the Arctic Ocean. He has completed at least a half dozen winter expeditions to the Arctic Ocean, and he has helped train and outfit members of two North Pole expeditions. He currently leads monthly trips, primarily backpacking and winter-camping, in the bush between the Upper Great Lakes and the Arctic Ocean. He also teaches two-day wilderness survival classes and two-day wilderness land navigation classes.
Michael was a Det/Sgt with the Michigan State Police for 26 years and currently is the lead investigator with Michigan Backcountry Search and Rescue (MibSAR), a Long Range Special Operations Group (LRSOG) that investigates long-term missing person cases and cold-case murders in the bush between the Upper Great Lakes and the Arctic Ocean. He is also the author of the "Missing-Person Sourcebook: Strategies & Tactics for Finding Your Missing or Murdered Loved One from the World’s Top Experts."
Pam Wright
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
Curt Isaacson
Curt Isaacson is an avid craftsman, trekker and camper from Nebraska. He’s been exploring the outdoors since childhood and developed an early knack for making and modifying his own gear. He especially enjoys promoting the intersection of the oft-forgotten tools of traditional craft and outdoor travel, especially as they relate to winter. Curt has fond memories of growing up working alongside his father in the workshop while learning tending the wood stove at the heart of it. His grandfather Karl immigrated from Kisa, Östergötland County, Sweden, giving Curt a deep appreciation for the culture, tools and lifestyle of Scandinavian peoples. He recently joined the ambassador team for Hults Bruk Axes of Sweden (also in Östergötland County) helping to produce content for their North American social media platforms. You can find them both on Instagram @hultsbruk1697 and @4esttrekker.
Pete Brautigam
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
Ryan Fox
Ryan has been on the Winter Camping Symposium Board for the past 10 years. He is a husband, father, and an avid outdoorsman. In the Winter he can usually be found on trail pulling a toboggan, or in a canvas tent, having a staring contest with a wood stove. Ryan has been teaching the Hot Tent 101 course for the past several years as well as a first time toboggan travel class. If you're new to Winter Camping, you don't want to miss these classes.
Greg Wilcox
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.
Scott Oeth
Scott loves getting outside--no matter the time of year--to explore, enjoy the wild, and test his outdoor skills. He eagerly works to convince others to join in the fun--in hot or cold weather--as he is thoroughly excited to introduce people to the outdoors and the adventure it holds. No stranger to cold weather camping, Scott earned his first "Zero Hero" more than 25 years ago, sleeping in a quinzhee on a frozen lake. An Eagle Scout, he is currently involved in teaching at the BSA's Winter Camping School and Okpik Cold Weather Leader Program, as well as developing and coordinating other advanced outdoor training programs. Scott is also a Registered Maine Guide, and co-owner of Bull Moose Patrol, an outdoor skills and adventure company.
Ben Piersma
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
Jason Gustafson
Jason Gustafson, founder and owner of Lester River Bushcraft (LBR), born and raised in Minnesota; living in Duluth since 1997. While LRB is primarily now known for the 100% wool Boreal shirt, it started with a different intent. I am fascinated with primitive skills and adapting to modern day bushcraft. I’ve trained with Mors Kohanski in the states and on location via Karamat in Edmonton, Canada. I continue to work on expanding my skill base and put those skills to use while camping and hiking year round.
Sydney Tanner and Jim Nosker
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.
Nick Gordon
Nick Gordon, Owner of NOW Outdoors, has been helping people gain more skills, knowledge, and confidence outdoors since 2010. In addition to guiding year-round in the Upper Midwest, he also leads adventure seekers around the world to destinations in Nepal, the Peruvian Andes, Canada, and deep into the Amazon Jungle of Colombia.
Don Kevilus
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
Brian Rice
Bushcrafter and survival instructor, is dedicated to teaching the love of the outdoors and how to coexist in harmony with nature. Brian has been operating Three Ravens Bushcraft for 6 years and is part of the volunteer leadership team that coordinates Frostbite! on an annual basis. www.threeravensbushcraft.com
Brian will be teaching two classes: Friction Fire and a Knot Class.
James Bishop
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.
Roger Pilsner
Roger Pilsner has been involved in a variety of crafts working with wood, leather, metal, fibers and anything else he can get his hands on, for over 50 years. Everything from blacksmithing and creating functional objects from mild or high carbon steel, brass and aluminum to reshaping salvaged metal into a variety of tools, camping gear and household objects. Owning a bandsaw mill he typically starts with green trees for his woodworking projects, sawing the lumber, kiln drying, machining it to dimensions and eventually creating a finished product is very enjoyable for him. He takes logs to finished goods. According to his wife he has at least two or three or four of every tool known to mankind and then some. He has built cedar strip canoes, houses, chairs, tables, weaving looms, boxes, guns, bowls, spoons and a variety of handmade tools such as bow saws, chisels and hammers utilizing his high end woodworking abilities. There is sawdust running through his veins.
Joe Stromski
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.
Jon Maruska
"Jon Maruska is an Engineering Technician in Duluth, MN. He is addicted to making gear, skiing lakes and hot-tent camping in northern Minnesota."
Mark Morgen
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.
Andy Wright
Andy Wright calls himself an “outrovert”; one who’s energized by and most at home in the outdoors. As a lifetime wilderness camper, he’s written extensively about the Boundary Waters (including how to eat really, really well there). Recent years have seen Andy teaching about foraging wild edibles, inspiring others through foraging hikes, classes and online content.
Kevin Kinney
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.
Earl Swenson
Earl Swenson is an outdoor enthusiast and BWCA devotee. He’s been enjoying the BWCA since 1986 with 80+ trips during the soft and hard water seasons tripping solo and with groups. He has a passion for Bushcraft and all things outdoors. He’s been Winter Camping since 2008 and coming to symposium for nearly as long giving seminars on Staying Warm, Food/cooking and Bannock/quick Bread making.
Sparky Stensaas
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”
Jonah Lottig
Jonah Lottig is the Operations Manager at Snowtrekker Tents. Jonah oversees the business operations ensuring each canvas tent is a testament to quality and durability. Committed to innovation and sustainability, I lead Snowtrekker in delivering the best canvas tent solutions for your outdoor adventures. Growing up with Snowtrekker from it’s inception by his dad Duane Lottig and now helping customers choose the right tent to fit their camping needs. Drawing on his knowledge of winter camping from a young child to now along with his backcountry adventures in the western mountains. Lets elevate your camping experience together by learning what to look for and not look for when choosing a hot tent.
Snowtrekker Tents
From Tent to Takeoff
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!
Irene Henderson
Irene Henderson, English teacher at Virginia High School in Virginia, Minnesota. I have always had a deep love for nature and the outdoors.
I have walked on winter traplines. I fish, hunt, hike and snowshoe. The sight, sound and smell of a wood fire is one of my favorite things. Add a book and a cup of tea to that and I am in ecstasy. I really like hot tenting. I hope to do more winter camping in the future.
Michael Maruska
Michael Maruska has been an avid winter camper for over 20 years. He has designed and crafted more than 30 ‘modern traditional’ canvas winter hot tents, including micro-yurts, A-Frames, hoop tents, spike tents, and various double-wall styles. An ISA Certified Arborist, Michael works for the City of Superior Parks, Recreation, and Forestry Department and has also worked with the US Forest Service in both the BWCAW and remote central Idaho. He enjoys exploring the outdoors with his wife Elizabeth and their two young sons Iver and Otis.