NOW Outdoors: Madison

The ability to find your way is a critical skill to ensure your safety, survival, and success when traveling in the backcountry. This class is perfect for both beginners and experienced backcountry travelers.

Gain the knowledge needed to make informed navigation decisions. This 4-day immersive, hands-on course is led by land navigation expert instructor, Steve Fritz. We will start at the very basic fundamentals and work up through the more advanced skills listed below. This course will take place in a wilderness setting, which allows us to immediately apply our skills in real life. Class will take place both indoors and outside in any weather. Camping on-site is included. Class will run most of the day with an hour break for lunch. We will also have an off-trail night hike to hone skills learned during the day.

During this 4-day course, you will learn and practice several skills and cover the topics below:

• Reading Topographical Maps
• Map Characteristics
• Land Navigation Terminology
• Declination
• The 3 Norths
• Point Plotting
• Protractors
• Measuring Map Distance
• Route Planning
• Pace Counting
• Compass Use
• Dead Reckoning
• Correcting for Terrain and Obstacles
• Nighttime Navigation Field Practice
• Terrain Association
• Lost Procedures
• Packing Essential Navigation Gear
• Tracking Progress and Landmarks
• UTM Grid
• Team Navigation and Communication
• Instructor-Led Routes
• Individual Routes

Check this event page often for exciting updates!

We are very excited to announce that due to this event's popularity over the last 10 years, we are moving from our 40-acre base camp in Waupaca to the much larger Wisconsin Lions Camp (WLC). Our new venue offers an ENORMOUS outdoor camping space for tents, hammocks, hot tents, and even RVs. We have a well-stocked woodpile for campfires and woodstoves. If you love the idea of winter camping but you're not quite ready to sleep outside, we now have indoor lodging available. Beds are just $35 per person per night in spacious bunkrooms.

With more participants, more space to spread out, and more campfires to cook on, we're giving you a few more options for meal time! This year, you can bring your own camp meals or you can opt for a catered meal provided by our friends at WLC. We have a great menu planned for the weekend. Coffee and hot water for tea, cocoa, or apple cider will be available throughout the day as well. We are still fine tuning the menu but it will be posted here soon. We can also accommodate special diets as needed. Be sure to let us know when you fill out your paperwork during registration.

Menu: Link coming soon

If you attended this event in the past, we'd love to have you again. This event is now more accessible than ever and we can't wait to see you there!

Join us Friday through Sunday for a variety of presentations, workshops, and hands-on skills training. Whether you arrive Friday or Saturday, check-in time runs 8am-10am. We can help you find a place to set up and are happy to answer any questions. Workshops will start at 10am each day and most presentations will run about 45 minutes. Some of our presentations will take place indoors and we plan to have a special guest presentation Saturday night after dinner followed by a bonfire social.

Event Schedule: Link coming soon

In addition to the awesome folks who attend every year, we have an incredible crew of expert presenters from the region joining us for a wide variety of topics including these and more. Check back for updates:

• Clothing and footwear
• Building a winter fire
• Axe and saw use
• Winter-specific first aid skills
• Shelters and sleep systems
• Camp cooking and baking
• Knife skills
• Women's-specific camping discussion
• How NOT to get lost
• Cold weather survival skills
• Ice fishing

Hot tent rental: Contact us for details at info@nowoutdoors.org
We have 3 Snowtrekker wall tents available for this event. Each tent is outfitted with a woodburning stove and firewood is provided. Prices listed are for the FULL weekend.

• 9x11.5 tent sleeps 2-3 on the ground or 2 on cots. $300
• 10x13 tent sleeps 4-5 people on ground pads or 3 on cots. $325
• 10x15 tent sleeps 4-6 people on ground pads or 4 on cots. $350

AS ALWAYS >>> A gear list and directions will be available via the group forum on our website for this event. You will have access upon registration.

Event Price: $75 discount for minors. Registration closes December 1st. Meal tickets must be purchased by November 24th.
2-Day $200
3-Day $250
We have a kids program in the works. Check back for details.
Ask about our discount for scout groups

The best winter hammock camping event in the country! Your family might think you're nuts but we know better. Come hang out and kick off the new year right. This event is always FREE and always fun.

The Wisconsin Frozen Butt Hang is a short "pulk or toboggan towing" trip in deep snow country. We like to get out there and really put ourselves and our gear to the test! We've been lucky enough to have some of the coldest temperatures the Midwest has to offer and routinely have the coldest of all winter hang events.

Where? This year we will be back in Pearson, WI near Jack Lake and hiking in on the Ice Age Trail. I will arrange to have a parking area plowed for us by Jack Lake.

The Route: We will hike in 1.5 miles on the Ice Age Trail (IAT) in Langlade County near Jack Lake. The parking lot on County J Road, Pearson, WI will be plowed for us and from there we can head south on the IAT past the western side of Jack Lake towards Game Lake. The park is closed to the public so we have the entire area to ourselves. There are picnic tables (might be buried under the snow) and a grill grate we can use. There is also an outhouse at camp. Be sure to bring snowshoes or skis.

This event has always been a celebration of the coldest weather we can hope for. That said, there are lots of opportunities for beginners to dial in there gear before the hang such as our Winter Workshop event in December. You can contact us at info@nowoutdoors.org for more info on this, or other beginner friendly trips here in WI.

This event is not recommended for beginners with little to no experience camping in the cold. Please also leave your fur babies at home for this event.

In the spirit of snow walkers, trappers, and arctic explorers from the past, this is a real high-adventure expedition for anyone who absolutely loves the cold.

Join us for an EPIC 9-Day traditional snowshoe expedition through the vast Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Northern Minnesota. We follow in the footsteps of the early fur trade trappers by means of snowshoe and toboggan during the day and sleep in traditional canvas “hot tents” at night. We use wood burning stoves to warm the tent, cook meals, and dry clothes each night. Even if the temperature drops to -40F outside, we can be comfortable with light layers in the tent. Local wildlife includes moose, otters, wolves, beavers, eagles, lynx, and more.

Our winter expeditions are a fun and challenging experience for the hardy individuals who love playing in the cold. Working and living in the cold for extended periods requires good teamwork and a variety of skills. Participants will strengthen all of these skills and more on this trip.

• Dressing appropriately for conditions
• Maintaining proper nutrition and hydration
• Selecting, harvesting, and processing firewood
• Using snowshoes
• Packing toboggans
• Axe and saw use
• Ice chisel use
• Winter cooking and baking
• Winter fire building and stove use
• Ice safety
• Winter survival skills

We'll meet at 5:00 pm Saturday, February 1st and stay at a local lodge. On Sunday morning we will check our gear and head to the put-in to start our journey!

This is a loop trip with 7 days on the ice. We travel most days and plan for 1 or 2 layover days (itinerary may change due to weather or other variables). We will travel roughly 30 miles in total. There are lots of places to explore along our route such as frozen waterfalls, artifacts from the old logging days, and more. We fish for monster trout on layover days, polar plunge, or practice winter survival skills. We will hike out Saturday, February 8th, spend the night at a lodge, and depart on Sunday February 9th.

All meals on trail are included. If you have special dietary restrictions, please let us know well in advance and we will do the best we can to accommodate.

Difficulty: Challenging
This trip is for experienced winter enthusiasts. You should be very comfortable camping and working in sub-zero conditions. We will be towing toboggans upwards of 6.5 miles per day at a steady pace. You should be able to provide sufficient personal clothing and sleep gear as per the provided gear list. Everyone will be provided a toboggan outfitted with tanks and a "day box" to hold your gear and group gear. This is an expedition style trip which means we all work together as a team to help with camp tasks such as tent set up and take down, collecting water, processing firewood, etc.

AS ALWAYS >>> A gear list and details will be available upon registration via access to the event group page on our website nowoutdoors.org.

Price: $2,300
You can also pay a $600.00 non-refundable deposit to secure your spot. This deposit will be put towards your final balance.