It’s been two years since Mark and good friend Mike Dvorak shuttled a crew of guys into the Boundary Waters for a long weekend of winter camping on Ottertrack Lake. One of the crew was Gustav Axelson, editor of Minnesota’s Conservation Volunteer Magazine. Gus, as he’s known, also does freelance work, was writing an article for Men’s Journal magazine comparing synthetic winter camping gear of today with that of natural fibers of yester-year. Originally the article was to be published sometime in the fall of 2008, but due to cutbacks at the magazine, it was pushed back to spring of 2009, then the fall, then…to where the article didn’t make the print of the magazine but it is on the Men’s Journal website:

Winter Camping Goes Retro

Wed, Feb 24, 2010

Swearing off high-tech synthetics for cotton, canvas, and a fat stove, a growing cult of “snow walkers” harks back to an era of cold-weather fun — and keeps plenty warm.

By Gustave Axelson

Photographs by Colin Clark

 

Our crew of three scurried to stash three growlers of India pale ale into two dogsleds already bulging with gear. My sled bucked forward as I wedged one of them between duffel bags — the dogs were about to depart whether we were ready or not. As soon as the lead musher stepped aboard, the dogs dashed us away from the chaos of our staging area in the outfitter’s parking lot and the only sound was the shush-ing of sled runners on fresh snow. Soon we had crossed the nonmotorized threshold into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, where the trail emptied out into a wide-open 17,000-acre ice-covered lake. The wind froze my eyelashes as I nuzzled deeper into the hood of my anorak. Click here for link to the whole article…..