Challenges Abound on Winter Outdoor Skills Trip

Around 4:00AM last Saturday, I started to freak out. I was freezing in a tent on top of a frozen lake. Even though my sleeping bag was rated to twenty degrees below zero, my feet were still blocks of ice as the temperature hovered around ten degrees. I needed to pee – badly.

As I was suffering, my trip-mates had much better designs on staying warm. I was helping lead this trip for my Teaching Outdoor Skills class, with students from the Outdoor Skills II class in tow. One of my co-leaders, Josh Abraham, smartly chose to sleep in the quinzhee we had made (imagine an igloo made out of snow) with three of our participants.

Our other co-leader, Caitlin Johnson, had opted for the tarp shelter our group had setup, that provided insulation from the wind with snow-built walls. She shared the space with two of our participants. I alone had chosen to sleep in a tent. “What could go wrong?” I thought, “I was warm enough earlier.” And I really wanted to see the stars through the tent’s mesh roof.

Before my nighttime crisis, our day had been great. We met up with the 40 or so other class trip participants on campus and drove half-an-hour to Boulder Lake, north of Duluth. Once there, we split into groups of 8 and snowshoed or skied our way through the woods and across the lake.

We struggled across the lake, tromping through 3-feet deep, powdery snow, to get to a protected inlet that would shield us from wind for the night. We set right away to building our camp. Participant Julia Luger and I tried to make a snow kitchen out of the non-ideal snow that lay before us.

After spending half-an-hour building a table and bench, I couldn’t help but be disappointed when I sat down and the snow crumbled underneath my weight. Julia’s counter-top and snow sink turned out much better and made perfect space for cooking later in the evening.

As we worked to make space for sleeping and cooking, other trip groups came by to check out our setup. It was a regular neighborhood out on the ice that day.

Our group made the rounds too, when we visited other camps and got a tour of the canvas wall-tent (complete with wood-burning stove) that our instructors, Dean Einerson and Mark Zmudy, were occupying for the trip.

As the sun set, we made our way back to our side of the lake and fixed a great meal of wild rice (mixed with cheddar broccoli) soup and instant mashed potatoes that Julia and participant Annemarie Rice had supplied for the trip. Ethan Heise had pre-cooked chicken breasts, which rounded out the dinner very nicely.

Overlooking the sleeping experience, the trip was a wonderful break from Duluth and a good opportunity to test skills and make new friends. Next time, I’ll remember to pack my foot warmers.

Outdoor Skills I and II are offered to both Recreation majors and non-majors, in the fall and spring respectively (you don’t need one to take the other; they just have different activities based around the seasons). If winter or fall activities don’t match your interests, a condensed version of Outdoor Skills I is being offered from May 17 – 28.