Patti's Story Part 8 ©

The Big Lead     

Big lead #1 moving gear

We had been traveling for about 12 days when we ran into the wide open lead pictured here. I estimated it to be about 50' across. As was our habit when running into these ever widening leads, we would split up and ski or run along either edge looking for a narrow place to cross. One of the phenomenon in this pristine place is sound clarity.We could be long distances apart and still have conversations albeit with enough volume. At The Big Lead, (named after Robert E Peary's Big Lead during his North Pole Expedition) we failed to find a better crossing spot. Bob and I returned to the spot where Will was standing staring at the other side of the lead.  Our other option is normally to calculate wind direction and start heading with it towards shore. Traveling along, hoping the wind would not shift in the opposite direction, it was our likely opportunity that the wind was pushing the ice into shore and we could step onto land. 

Big Lead #2 moving gear and dogs

Will kept staring at the other side of the lead during this 'option' conversation. Then he said, 'I think that long piece of ice might be detached from the side.Here comes life again...  it did not appear to be separated to me but as we stood looking at it, it magically started to move away from the side and floated free. Whatever you want to call this, life seems full of these events. They never cease to stun me! We were there the day and the very moment that the ice detached. I cannot calculate the odds on this happening at just that moment.

We tied a pail to a long rope and took turn tossing and trying to get the pail flopped over the top to the opposite side of that ice. The object was to get the pail filled with water and it would act as a sort of hook. We were laughing with amazement and made a contest of it. I won! I'm pretty proud of that. We managed to wedge the length of it to either side, creating a bridge. You can see in the photos how long it was!  Will and I used ice screws to anchor either side. I went across first and the job of getting this expedition going again began. Last across were the dogs, the sled and Will who had been photographing the entire event. 

Peace!!

Patti Steger
Steger Mukluks
mukluks.com

Be sure to follow / like us on Facebook - Pinterest - Twitter - Google+ !
Get an email when a new post is made!

Patti's Story Part 7 ©

Water And More Water     

There are a myriad of considerations with this type of icy/watery travel. I'm wearing, alternately, ski boots and rubber boots sometimes with plastic bags for this section over the fjords. My feet are damp from the inside and are dried out at the end of each travel day. We were always able to dry our gear and create options for our own needs, but the dogs were a different story.

Sewing Booties

Before I left Ely, I sewed about 20 sets of 4 pairs of dog booties with velcro ankles from that same Klimate material. Those paws are as important to this journey as our own feet. Every morning we would booty up each dog for the tough trek over the sharp ice and cold water. I would keep watch to see if any booties fell off and would stop the show to grab up ones that had slipped off and then get one back on the naked paw. I'd brought my sewing kit along. Sewing kit is a must have on any expedition!  I spent my evenings repairing booties or sewing new ones. As the booties wore out I would take the velcro off and cut up my bivouac sack to hand sew more booties. My bivouac was made from the same material. In this first photo I am in the tent repairing booties, a daily event. In the other photo I am bootying up Creswell, our Eskimo dog. I was focused on paws. Paw duty! For the love of those most excellent fur team members! They were the best.

Bootying Creswell

Will and I have been running back through our journals, trying to recall all the dogs names. The reason we know these boys so well, Zap, Soapy, Oscar, Blackie, Chester and Buster, is because they were from our Lynx Track team in Minnesota. Our dogs. Will and Bob had traded something... probably bacon or cheese, for Creswell on the trip north before Resolute Bay. We had other dogs who were lent to us for this trip. We're still looking back. Will's journals are far more complete than mine.

Did I tell you I'm getting a new puppy at the end of this month?  I'm real excited about that. I lost my best buddy, my velcro dog who went everywhere with me...  Luke last May 27, 2015.. also Don Shelby's birthday. Don is a dear friend so I was happy that it was that particular special day. Luke was 13 1/2 years old. He developed bone cancer in his jaw that started traveling down his throat. I had to let him go. So many tears. I still cry when I think about it. That last day I rubbed my hands over him and over him trying to create a strong memory for how he felt. I still can feel his fur. He had a most excellent death, a party all day until a delicious bowl of Hagen Daz laced with sleeping pills relaxed him while my friend Sally and I drove him around. He loved car rides!!  Then my Vet got into the back of the van and he was gone in a short moment. He was happy. That was all that mattered to me.

My lesson from that was to avoid any plastic and some other items made in China. At the age of 10 he had 3 major seizures. It started after I bought a plastic car water bowl made in China. I can only imagine what was in that plastic. After that I tossed everything from China, all dog food with additives from China, all toys, all bowls. I was sure I had gotten him through it and we were on the safe side again. Sadly the cancer had likely started about then as it was in an advanced stage before I discovered it. I'm a manufacturer. I probably know more than most people about how unregulated China is. I should have thought better then.

Peace,

Patti Steger
Steger Mukluks
mukluks.com

Be sure to follow / like us on Facebook - Pinterest - Twitter - Google+ !
Get an email when a new post is made!

Patti's Story Part 6 ©

Over Melting Ice     

My reading menu for the 1980's and 90's had been pretty much exclusively composed of Old Arctic Manuals. It was a consistent diet of Arctic and Antarctic Exploration going as far back as the Franklin Expedition in search of the Northwest Passage and as recent Sir Ranulph Fiennes Transglobe Expedition and finally The Steger North Pole Expedition. Most of the earlier books had rather tragic endings with descriptions of dangerous or deadly conditions. I never felt in danger at any time with one exception... which I will describe in a later Part yet without number. It involved a lone bull Muskoxen during our 300 mile packing trip. Steger North Pole Expedition was the official name of the expedition. The name was morphed around by others. I was still involved in those first North Pole organizing years after this 1982/83 expedition. National Geographic Society was onboard early before any team members were selected. Thanks is due to famous National Geographic Photographer Jim Brandenburg for making this connection. He even lent Will a good suit for our first meeting in Washington D.C.  Then NGS Expedition Editor Bill Graves arranged for and sponsored our travel with the purpose of interviewing prospective Steger North Pole Expedition team members. Bill told me one day that the reason they were sponsoring Will's North Pole ambition was because they believed he had what it took to make it, he had that rare quality, a kind of laser focus. They were precisely correct!

It was shortly after that time that I ended my participation. From that point I consulted with Will on gear when asked and sewed some of his personal items. I did not make mukluks for The North Pole. My sponsorship of Steger Expeditions began with the 1,600-mile south-north traverse of Greenland. It was the longest unsupported dogsled expedition in history at that time in 1988, a training expedition for The International TransAntarctica Expedition and for all of his subsequent expeditions. 

Small lead to cross

You can see from the first photo that the Fjords were beginning to form leads. This happens at major melt points on either side of the fjords where water is flowing at a rapid rate and the ice is no longer attached to the land. The melt freezes and melts and freezes creating the fracture that eventually looks like the photo you see here. That is the simplest explanation. Here we have run into our first Lead. You can see it's easy to negotiate this one. Run and jump! There are no dramatic stories to tell at this point. The travel is fast and the conditions are alternately rough/icy and wet. The temps are above freezing most of the time. The salty ocean water freezes at 28.8ºF / -1.8°C instead of 32ºF / 0°C.  We are traveling about 10 hours each day during nighttime in 24 hour daylight. As I wrote before, it is colder during the night hours and better for the dogs. We take turns skiing lead.

Water  Water

Fresh water! In the land of ocean ice and brackish water your source of fresh water is a short climb to the top of an iceberg where delicious pools of crystal clear water await you! Best water in the world without exception! Being out, especially this far, is very peaceful. It's very moment to moment. There isn't much conversation. You simply keep going forward.

Regarding the date I posted regarding the origination of the Nunavut Territory, it was in 1999, not 1993. Thank you Caroline Dennill! Much appreciated. 

Camp #1

Peace~ 

Patti Steger 

Steger Mukluks

mukluks.com

Be sure to follow / like us on Facebook - Pinterest - Twitter - Google+ !
Get an email when a new post is made!

Patti's Story Part 5 ©

Ellesmere Island Overview     

Last night was spent Googling maps of Ellesmere Island with limited success. I am no Cartographer but have given this my best shot. This is a topographic Google Earth map with no locations on it so I have plugged in all of the important bits for you. Ellesmere Island is a mountainous place reaching altitudes of up to 8600'. It is 75,767 sq miles of rock, gravel and glaciers. Estimated population of 146.

We departed Eureka Weather Station on June 13. With a heavily loaded Komatik we headed out over gravel onto the watery ice of Slidre Fjord. Throughout this trip over the Fjords, keep in mind my explanation of the lightening speed of the Arctic Spring melt and the same for Fall freeze. I'll let this map be my offering today. The route is in red and blue. The first leg is negotiating Slidre Fjord, Greely Fjord and Tanquary Fjord over open leads and much water to reach Tanquary Camp. On arrival at Tanquary Camp, Bob caught a ride back to Resolute Bay as planned and headed home to Ely. Will and I rested the dogs for a few days and prepared for the next leg, a 300 mile dogpacking trip north through the mountains and around Lake Hazen and back to Tanquary Camp.

Have a great weekend everyone!! See you Monday!

Peace,

Patti 
Steger Mukluks

mukluks.com

Be sure to follow / like us on Facebook - Pinterest - Twitter - Google+ !
Get an email when a new post is made!

Patti's Story Part 4 ©

Loving and Leaving Resolute Bay     

My stay in Resolute Bay lasted 5 days. I met interesting and not so interesting people. I made friends with people who I kept in contact with for many years. There was a Japanese film crew staying at Jasudasens who were making a movie called ‘Antarctica’. I was invited to tag along with them  and see how they were recreating the Antarctic scenes in the Arctic. They had made these fabulous stuffed King Penguins props that looked real as far as I could see from photos because I’ve never been to Antarctica or seen real penguins. They were flying around in a huge UH-1 Iroquois (Huey) Helicopter so I got my first Heli ride in a Huey with a Japanese film crew. Cool right?!

The only other event that stands out in memory was meeting the hilarious and robust Paddy Doyle at the Arctic Bar one ‘night’. He was a Pilot for Bradley Air and killing time there like most of the guys.  It was that very night that we co-wrote ‘The Arctic Blues’. I would compose a verse and he would compose the next, on and on. Spontaneous Arctic humor. I never wrote it down and can’t recall one line of it. But it was GREAT! I’ve heard Paddy has been a pilot for a major airline for many years now. Maybe retired?

Anvil Thunderhead

On the morning of June 10, I loaded myself and gear onto a Twin Otter. The flight to Eureka Weather Station was longer than expected. The remote landing strips in the Arctic range in size from the length of a city block to a postage stamp. It seems all about how fast you can reverse your engines and get the brakes on. Better than a roller coaster ... I did not throw up during or post any of these landings. I would mentally tell my sons to always remember that I loved them to the moon and around the sun and back again and no matter what happens your Mom loves you. Same as I would tell them every day before they left for school. You never know.

Eureka Weather Station is very small and remote community. Most Canadians working in the Arctic have strange and interesting or odd back stories.

Slidre Fjiord

 My Canadian friend Bill Rouse who is a commentator here uses the term ‘Inmates’. I like that one! They were inmates who had sentenced themselves to time in isolation. In the dining hall was a long table loaded with bakery and sweets. It was always there with fresh coffee and tea. 24/7. I assumed it had something to do with morale and feeling at home. Worked for me!

I had not seen Will for 4 months so I was anxiously waiting for sight of him. He was sun burnt and happy. As was our habit, our greeting was brief and we went right to work pulling gear. Decisions had to be made as to what to keep and what to give away or store. Our camp was on a flat bit of gravel beyond the landing strip. My gear had to be added to the komatik. With the Arctic Spring comes the accelerated Arctic melt. Likewise the Fall happens with blinding speed. You’ll see a lot of water in the coming photos as we will be traveling over the Fjords of Ellesmere as they literally melt away.

Peace,

Patti 
Steger Mukluks

mukluks.com

Photo by Will Steger.

Be sure to follow / like us on Facebook - Pinterest - Twitter - Google+ !
Get an email when a new post is made!

Patti's Story Part 3 ©

The Land of the Midnight Sun - Resolute Bay     

On the morning of June 5, 1982, I caught my next flight to Yellowknife, the NWT Government Capital and then on to the long flight to Resolute Bay. Resolute is very close to the fabled Northwest Passage. The transplanted temporary workers in Resolute Bay often referred to it as a 'gas station/gravel pit' or 'the armpit of the north'. They worked at the airport or one of the Government facilities. It's basically all gravel bar. I stayed at Jesudason's Bed and Breakfast in the Inuit village a couple miles from the base where life seemed pleasant and active 24 hours a day in the land of the midnight sun. Schedules were kaput. There were polar Bear Alert signs everywhere. Serious Polar Bear awareness required.

On arriving, my agenda required that I contact the Manager of Borek Air, give him the bottle of whiskey that I had brought along for this purpose and he would get me on one of his resupply flights to Eureka. I wonder if its still done that way? I finally found this fellow in the Arctic Bar near the airbase with a few under his belt. I politely endured a few crude suggestions to the tune of  'For some people a bottle is enough but I'm thinking it may not be enough for you!' I turned around and returned to the village. Sadly, as much as I would have loved to... I could not afford to shred this guy, I needed a ride. I can zip it when I have to. There weren't enough women up there then. He apologized after he sobered up. I guess that's something right?

Resolute Bay village was significant because this is where I first met an older Inuit woman named Annie who allowed me to spend a day with her sewing Kamiks, sealskin boots. Her daughter spent the day with us interpreting. Before tape measures there were hand measures and string or rope probably sinews. To measure the length of my foot, she had me place my hand on a piece if paper. She marked the back of my palm. Then she instructed me to roll up and over on my middle finger to the second knuckle and she marked that. Magically that was the correct! That was the length of my foot! So simple! Next she showed me how by holding my fists together, the circumference measurement was the ankle opening needed for my foot to fit into a boot. These are a couple of examples she used, there were many more. THEN she whipped out her tape measure laughing!! We laughed a lot that day. She was so sweet and dear, I appreciated every minute we spent together. 

Years after I started Steger Mukluks and had been sponsoring mukluks to Will's expeditions, I returned to Resolute Bay while working on his 1995 Arctic Project Expedition. I took a pair of Steger Mukluks to Annie. Gordon Wiltsie, the team photographer, came with me to meet her and get a photo of us together. I have it in my boxes of photos to be cataloged but it seems I'm waiting for Godot.  Gordon is an Internationally famous Arctic Photographer. Google him! He's an old friend, much accomplished. Gordon, if you're reading this, any chance you still have that picture?? I know it's a long shot.

I'll close today with a photo of Will and Bob on the trail. The sun appears to be setting in this pic but is not. The earth is turning in a rotation that exposes the sun in a perimeter view. We always traveled at night when the sun was lowest. The weather is cooler then and better for the dogs. 

Peace

Patti Steger 

Steger Mukluks

mukluks.com

Photo by Will Steger.

Be sure to follow / like us on Facebook - Pinterest - Twitter - Google+ !
Get an email when a new post is made!

Patti's Story Part 2 ©

Good Morning! Here we go!     

Background

I started teaching at Lynx Track Winter Travel School as a novice assistant in 1978 and eventually became a course leader. I would spend my winters in Ely and the rest of the year at my tiny home north of Colfax, Wisconsin where I made my living with my small design and sewing business named Canvasback Company. My dear friend Bob Cary created the wonderful Canvasback logo you see here after I moved to Ely. My permanent move north with my two small sons happened in Fall 1980 when I boxed up our belongings with the help of one of my girlfriends. We packed up our red 1949 GMC pickup truck with the split windshield and rolled north. That was a great truck. We all have a lot of fond memories traveling in that old red truck. This bit is for anyone who wondered. I'm from Wisconsin.

To gain perspective, I'll note here that my farthest north on this expedition will be the northern end of Lake Hazen on Ellesmere Island. Google Lake Hazen Ellesmere Nunavut Canada. It is now part of Quttinirpaaq National Park. People in Ely would frequently ask me if I was afraid to be going that far out. What about Polar Bears? My response is still the same. I would be more afraid if I were going to navigate a big city. I was concerned about Polar Bears. Learning to shoot and hit a distant target with a 30.06 was important know-how and helped assuage that fear. I was surprised to find I was not a bad shot thankfully. Skiing lead on this expedition required traveling with this large rifle in sling position, barrel up. Barrel up Patti! Eventually I will meet up with Will and Bob in Eureka and continue traveling with them. Our ensemble would include one long Komatik style sled pulled by 10 beautiful dogs, two skiers, one musher. I remembered one more important dog last night. Soapy Bear. He was our strongest and largest dog. 'Wheel'. The toughest position. Breaking the sled every morning from it's frozen position. Powerful. Zap and Soapy were the wheel dogs. Will and Bob started dog sledding at Baker Lake, Nunavut, an Inuit village located a distance inland from Hudson Bay. They would travel over 1200 miles before I see them at Eureka Camp in the middle of June.

Now I'm back to June 3,1982 and the story of heading north. 

I'm heading out intending to spend the better part of a year in the Canadian Arctic. On that day, with the help of two friends, we pack 500 pounds of gear and three women into an old Ford. Overloaded. We happily travel southwest, then west, then north intending to deliver me and all this gear to Winnipeg International Airport. The next step is to get to the border crossing and hope it all goes easily. I don't want to have to unpack all these bags. We arrive late in the day at International Falls and on our first attempt are turned back because I need a one year tourist pass and they can only give me a three month. We turned the car around and had to re-enter through the American Border. The trooper walks out and asks for our ID's. (We never got that far on the Canadian side before we turned back.) That's when we discover one of my friends had forgotten her drivers license and in fact had no identification at all. It took some talking but we eventually were allowed back through. We had to drive all the way to the North Dakota border and the Pembina crossing to get the right pass. We first stop in to the US border patrol to let them know my friend has no ID so they will let her back through later that day. My paperwork is finally generated at Pembina and we continued on north to Winnipeg. 

Today I would know that if I had 500 lbs of gear to move I would head for Air Cargo. I wasn't sure what I needed to do when I arrived at that airport. Thanks to all of the friendly and understanding Canadians who directed me. 'We have a novice American here!' I tend to learn things the hard way. Once the gear was all packed properly, dropped and paid for, we went for a meal and said our sad goodbyes. They dropped me off and I waved as I walked into the main terminal with my backpacks and a one way ticket north. I checked my overweight pack. They decided not to charge me, I must have looked that tired and pathetic. The next step was to go through security. Back then it was pretty simple but not so simple for me that day. I had a rather large hunting knife in a sheath in my small carry-on pack. Novice all the way! I can still picture that security officer pulling that big knife out of my bag and the reaction. 'Ms Steger this knife needs to be in your checked baggage. Please take it to the ticketing desk and ask them if they can locate your bag.' I apologized profusely and ran back and caught my backpack just in time.  I've never tried to board an aircraft with a hunting knife in my pack since then. See .. hard way! 

I boarded my flight! Yes I boarded my flight! This first leg was to Edmonton, Alberta. I've had to dig out my old journals because many of the details are gone from memory. It feels often that my life has been a long series of fateful events. I was getting settled into my seat and said hello to the man seated next to me. He introduced himself. His name was Hank Killian. He was famous in the scientific community for his many years studying Polar Bears. Polar Bears had been my only serious concern. I was dumbfounded. You can learn a lot about Polar Bears in a few hours. Thank you!

Kismet

Patti Steger 

Steger Mukluks
mukluks.com
Be sure to follow / like us on Facebook - Pinterest - Twitter - Google+ !
Get an email when a new post is made!

Patti's Story Part 1 ©

Hello Everyone!!     

This is part of the story of how I came to create the Steger Mukluk Company. These are excerpts from my notes on the Steger Mantell Steger Expedition 1982/83. I'm the last Steger, the physically weakest member, not the mentally weakest. Team members Included Will Steger, Robert Mantell and me along with ten most excellent K-9's. Zap, Blackie, Oscar, Chester, Creswell, Marty, (I'll have to ask Will the rest of the names... I can see them all but after all these years cannot recall my own name sometimes)  We were very young back then... reminisce. This was years before simple communication, the new GPS's and satellite phones. We carried a crash locator that could only be detected if the batteries were working and if a jet happened to be flying right over us. We all signed off on our obvious risk which included a statement on how we would like our bodies disposed of in the event. 

I learned most of what I know about how to live under extreme cold conditions from that Expedition.  We had more know how and guts than money in those days, We ran a winter survival school with dog teams outside Ely, MN called Lynx Track Winter Travel. It never occurred to us that we could not do anything that we dreamed up and oddly we did just that.  For this first trip we had a small group of product sponsors that included Science Diet Dog Food, Twinings Tea and Carnation Milk. There were no cash sponsors back then. The years of the high profile, sponsored, Steger Expeditions were yet to come. I sewed for months preparing clothing, dog gear, sled bags, sleeping gear as well as alterations to nearly everything else. One particular failure was some parkas that looked like you could roll up in and survive a storm in. Instead they were too stiff and tunneled cold air. How things work. Why things work. As a designer I'm constantly looking for the answers to these questions while trying to balance function with beauty. Function first. The outdoor clothing and gear explosion was at it's infancy. So much yet to come.

Today is Monday June 13. It was close to this date in 1982 that I had completed a garage sale to make enough money to get myself from Ely, MN to Resolute Bay, Canada. Located in the then Canada's Northwest Territories it is now renamed Nunavut, Canada as of 1993 - correction ( it was in 1999, not 1993. - thank you Caroline Dennill! Much appreciated ). It is the largest portion of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. We will get the maps out soon so you can get a better feel for distances. Along with a couple friends and a heavily packed car. We headed for Winnipeg, Canada where I would board a flight for Yellowknife and Resolute Bay, NWT.

I chose this photo to start because it symbolizes so much. The extraordinarily cold weather and difficult conditions were expected. I sewed most of our clothing and gear. Some of it worked and some of it, sadly, worked less well than hoped. In this photo I'm wearing an anorak that I designed from a new fabric called Klimate. It was an early competitor with Gore-Tex  and the breathable, synthetic, high-tec fabric revolution. I wished for a front zipper every day that I was the lead skier.  Not enough ventilation. The frost you see is simply from breathing. You can see my eyelashes are caked with frost. I would have to take off my mitt and thaw them with my fingers to slide it off. There was no discomfort involved and I think it makes for a real glamorous look right?! 

I'll finish this note with a quick statement about my love for natural fibers. I have technical fabrics in my footwear line but most of it is leather and canvas. We have some technical pieces in the clothing too. I'm old school and love my cotton and my wool forever. I love it because it's comfortable, doesn't pick up body odor like a magnet and wears like iron. I wear technical too and appreciate it especially for it's lightweight quality. Right now... I'm wearing all cotton. Made in the USA!

Have A Positive Day!

Patti Steger 

Steger Mukluks
mukluks.com
Be sure to follow / like us on Facebook - Pinterest - Twitter - Google+ !
Get an email when a new post is made!