Winter Fun 101

11/16/2024

WinterFest 2024-25 at Fitger's Duluth!

11/15/2024

We’re ready for winter! Stop by Fitger's Duluth for WinterFest 2024-25 !

10/29/2024

🧡 ❄️ 🎃

HALL-SNOW-WEEN! Please keep in mind this is the first look of what we MAY see. The picture is starting to become clearer and would happen during the day Thursday. Please keep updated by going to www.wdio.com/weather

10/25/2024

Winter Camping Symposium has recognized us as one of their top fans!
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10/22/2024

92 pages of all kinds of information on the fest. We consider this an essential for planning out your Ice Fest experience. Download is available at the link in our bio or coming soon to a retailer/ climbing gym near you!

10/22/2024

Let the countdown begin! 🥳 The 66th annual Christmas City of the North Parade is officially 1 month away!

10/22/2024

As we near the 25th anniversary event, please let us know if you have any questions. You can reach us thru messenger or [email protected]

Set up starts tomorrow!!

10/22/2024

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Holiday Harbor Village December 6th & 7th, 2024 Embrace the deep calm of the far north this holiday season during the 2nd Annual Holiday Harbor Village weekend in Grand Marais, December 6th & 7th, 2024. Leave the frenzy for the quiet woods and captivating harbor, and cozy up with your favori...

10/20/2024

Steger Mukluks make winter much more fun. We know this 1st hand. ❄️

Patti Steger arriving by dog team Village of Dettah, NWT 12/24/83 -30F°

Going back to our 1992/93 Northwest Territories Expedition!

It was a couple days before Christmas. We were packed up with two 7’ sleds and two smaller 5 dog teams. Will carried the heavier food for people and dogs. He had the rifle and anything else that was heavier. I had gear like the wall tent and the camp elements. He had the stronger dogs but I had a young female Eskimo dog that I had traded fabric for with an Inuit woman outside of Resolute Bay. She was beautiful and her name was Marty. She created a lot of excitement on my team as the only female.... that’s another story.

In Yellowknife I had sewn a two person canvas wall tent with a double zip fly. I found asbestos cloth and tin at the hardware store to sew on to make the wood stove chimney hole. On this next travel leg from Yellowknife to the MacKenzie River and north to the Arctic Ocean we were looking at temps ranging from -20F° to -50F° so we needed to travel differently.

I loved that wall tent. It held exactly what it needed to hold. Tall enough to stand up in the center, enough room for two bedrolls, a small tin wood stove, meals and gear. It was pretty efficient and was made from a cast off tarp from a YK dive company. The only thing I had to buy was the zippers and the wood stove, chimney parts, the fitted chimney hole and support poles. I sewed it at The Native Women’s Association workshop. I don’t recall where I bought the materials for the sled bags. Will made the sleds. We went from traveling with a single long komatik dogsled that floats over high Arctic hard pack to a traditional dogsled that worked better in deep snow below the tree line.

From Yellowknife Bay we traveled out across Great Slave and to our first Native village of Dettah where we spent Christmas at the Catholic Church there. The people were keeping track of us on their shortwave radios so would always walk out to meet us as we approached a village and invite us to stay with them. It was so kind! Will thought it was because I was there, a woman was on this trip.

We traveled each day either camping or getting to a village where the native people kindly shared their homes. Sometimes it was a hunting camp, lots of nights in our tent and sometimes a shack. Sometimes we were sharing places with hunters out on their snowmobiles hunting Caribou in the middle of the wilderness. We gratefully used their worn snowmobile trails!

It was during that trip that I learned to wear my mukluks barefoot. All of the native people I met wore their boots barefoot. I found it to be much more comfortable and just as warm. Since then I’ve always worn mine barefoot. When I walk into my house I slip out of my mukluks and straight into my cozy house slippers. When I go visiting in winter I bring my slippers along.

Happy Mukluking!
Patti Steger
Steger Mukluks
Founder, Designer, Owner

10/18/2024

Have you registered for the 2024 WCS yet? Please remember that registering online before the event saves you $20.00.
Event registration onsite is $60.00 per person.
Presenters and vendors, please register as well so we can make sure that you have your spot! Thank you, and see you next week!

https://www.wintercampingsymposium.com/registration

10/18/2024

Let it SN❄️W!

10/15/2024

NOW is the time to book for Bentleyville USA in Duluth, MN Nov 23-Dec 28. Reservations at destinationduluth.co/SouthPierInn

Bentleyville is USA TODAY is #1 Public Holiday Light Display! destinationduluth.co/1stPlaceUSATodayBentleyville

Photo by Dennis O'Hara - northernimages.com

10/14/2024

Make sure not to miss Saturday night's keynote from Bear Paulsen.

10/14/2024

❄️❄️H!