UpNorthica

Aspire to go winter camping, but have cold feet? Backpacker has posted a fairly comprehensive ‘winter camping essentials’ guide to help allay your fears and warm you up to the experience.
The collection of articles covers how to dress, what to bring, and how to do what you need to do — all without losing precious [...]

Ah, snow caves and igloos: Bringers of warmth and shelter amidst Winter’s deepest cold. Symbols of welcome and hospitality — perhaps never more so when they’re spared for the next weary winter camper who comes along.
So why do we have to drag them into the Leave No Trace debate?
There’s an interesting discussion over [...]

When considering the topic of winter survival, I’m compelled to believe that snow forts just SO ROCK!
In what feels like a page stolen from a modern architecture journal, Wend Magazine has posted a number of unusual igloo creations.
Igloo construction tools (like Grand Shelters’ ICEBOX) are becoming more widely used in winter camping. So it’s [...]

Winter seems poised to come in like a lion (or a snow leopard, or something) so why not meet it head-on this weekend at the Winter Camping Symposium?
For the uninitiated, ‘winter camping’ continues to encompass a panorama of outdoor activities. Having surprisingly little to do with trying to keep warm, its biggest challenges lie in [...]

With your Fall chores out of the way (oh wait, it never came this year,) you oughta have a few slots open for some hard-earned fun. So why not check out these events, sponsored by Midwest Mountaineering.

Winter Camping: Traveling
Thursday, October 29, 6:30pm, in the Expedition Room
If you’ve only winter camped a little, survived it, and [...]

With snow falling already, (sheesh!) holiday shopping can’t be far behind. So why not throw in your bid for this vintage portage pack from 1882? The “buy it now” price is a mere $100,00 American dollars.
While packs like this have never been cheap, this one’s value rests upon more than just how well-preserved it is. [...]

I took my life into my own hands last weekend, when I lured an unwitting group of testers to a cabin in Wisconsin and made them all try… instant coffee.
Before you, too, cringe, consider this: Starbucks VIA just may be the best solution for coffee on the trail. It comes in small pre-measured packets, [...]

We’re headed off for 5 days of adventure along the Frost River — where the forecast may indeed call for some frosty mornings.
But don’t worry, we know preparedness is the key: If things go bad, we’ll just do what those two Aussie girls did on Sunday when they got lost in a sewer for hours. [...]

I was up last night until umpteen o’clock, prepping meal ingredients for an overnighter on the Namekagon River. With all the planning, portioning, storing and bear-proofing measures taken, my food will be traveling way more safely and comfortably than my buddies and I. Though all the effort was for just one meal— breakfast burritos — [...]

A headlamp that’s made to go on your chest? Nope, I sure hadn’t tried that one before.
But when I first saw GoMotion’s Sternum 3-Watt Luxeon LED Kit, I was curious about the concept. Could it actually better a night-time wilderness experience? Would it avoid the drawbacks of traditional headlamps? And would this huge searchlight on [...]

Craftzine is definitely not on our regular rotation of manly, testosterone-inducing sites  (I hear that snickering,) but right now it has an interesting post on camping cook kits.
While the author prefers a kit that would take up most of a pack, she does advocate for bringing along as little packaging as possible. More importantly, it’s [...]

This what they mean by, ‘mateable sleeping bags?’
Sexy Hotness is a sleeping bag meant to optimize the act of doin’ the wild thing, out in the wild. Boutique gearmakers Alite Design previewed (not demo’ed) the thing at OR. Judging from all the buzz, I guess a lot of people out there like to watch.
The [...]

How to salvage an epic adventure turned epic fail? Reward your buddies with Demerit Patches for surviving it all.
For everyone who may have has had a less-than-perfect camping experience, Demeritwear takes a little of the hurt off, with their selection of tees and individual patches. Tent get flooded out? Critters enjoy the food pack more [...]

If you ever did summer camp in the Boundary Waters, Surviving Crooked Lake will probably float your boat.
The feature-length indy flick, opening this Friday, has all the wrong right elements of a teen thriller: 4 girls and their “slightly older male guide” go canoe camping in the wild. Romance, jealousy and mild peril ensue. But [...]

Posts will drop off for a few days, as we’ll be vacationing this week along the sun-drenched Minnesota Riviera. Check back next week for more of UpNorthica.com!