This is a guest post from our friend Alice Rossignol. She’s a big fan of the great outdoors and her love for the Upper Peninsula is blossoming. You can follow her on Twitter. Photos courtesy of Courtney Shuert.

I’ve always preferred one direction: up.

And I take it as it comes: straight up, upstream (on Cripple Creek, preferably), Up (the movie), what’s up, shut up, up north, or since I moved to Michigan – UP, the Upper Peninsula.

As an Oregon native I’ve been rock climbing mediocrely since I was a kid, but even with 10,000-foot peaks, Smith Rock and a bunch of other things that you don’t spot in Michigan, no one offered to show me good, accessible ice. Ice that you can climb, that is.

Two girlfriends and I took advantage of what the UP has to offer and headed up (…as in north… ok, I’m done) to one of the largest ice climbing festivals in the country, the Michigan Ice Fest.

According to the fest’s Facebook page, climbers have rallied in Munising for the event since 1983, climbing frozen walls along the shores of Lake Superior in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Down Wind Sports organizes the event.

On Saturday, we tackled the 6ish hour drive from Lansing and arrived in rather good form, with zero ice climbing experience, multiple clothing layers made of various wicking materials, and ready to take on the challenge.

Climbers had been donning crampons and gripping ice axes since Thursday. Eager to catch up, we hit up (…) Sydney’s Restaurant – a local eatery that sacrificed itself to be the fest’s home base – for a climbing social. That means, free beer and conversation, and more polar-fleece laden people than we expected – a sizeable chunk of this year’s more than 300 participants.

After some drinking and gear browsing, two guest climbers: Vince Anderson and Barry Blanchard took to the stage to discuss their climbing experiences, easily impressing the masses with their awesomeness.

Before we hit the ice on Sunday morning, we checked out our gear (harness, boots, crampons, helmet), and Vince personally showed me how to size crampons, put them on, take them off and store them. Needless to say this was…also awesome.

The weather had been very mild throughout the fest (in the 30s during the day) and Sunday was no different. The organizers mentioned that warmer temperatures stretched the ice out during the day making climbs longer, while freezing temperatures at night kept the climbs from melting completely. Vince also noted that even though the conditions this year weren’t ideal, these local climbs were great and prepared you for real-life conditions on more difficult ascents.

The accessibility of the area’s climbs is incredible. After a 10-minute van ride to the lake, and a 5-minute hike up a slippery slope, we found two routes with ropes in place for belayed climbing.

Locations of Munising’s local climbs

View Munising Ice Climbs in a larger map

Vince and a local guide, Linda, were both amazing teachers and ready to share expertise, experience and encouragement. So, in no time at all, most of us looked like this:

And up I go!

Fellow UP adventurer Courtney looks for a solid spot to drive that ax.

This made us very happy:

Alice (author) and scientist friend Layla.

Honestly, ice climbing was a bucket-lister for me – something I figured I’d try once, fearfully wet myself in the process, and move on to…dog sledding. Turns out, I’m a big fan of the cryosphere.

Some find ice climbing a thrill because of the adrenaline that inevitably shoots through your system when you realize you’re 20 feet up on a sheet of frozen water – but I found comfort in its methodical movements, required concentration, and the freakishly beautiful Lake Superior venue.

My grandfather, who instilled a love of learning and the outdoors in my family, had passed peacefully just days before the experience. It was a painful loss, but I loved him and he knew that, and he left me with some ridiculously fantastic memories.

Call it what you want – a tribute, in honor of, a journey of self-discovery, a spiritual quest – but there was no better time to do something that made me feel so alive.

And no better place to do it.

We think our friends over at Upper Peninsula Overland have a pretty sweet thing going on. If you like adventure and want to see some places in the Upper Peninsula you wouldn’t normally get to see, these are good people to know. This video will give you a nice introduction.

U.P. Overland 2011 on Vimeo.

You can find Upper Peninsula Overland on Twitter, Facebook, You Tube and the web.

Today we salute you, Mr. Shakyhands-Cartographer-That-Gave-Isle-Royale-To-The-U.P.-Instead-of-Canada. Some people say it was the foresight of our founding father, Benjamin Franklin, who gave us Isle Royale under the Treaty of Paris. But we know better. When you were employed to draw that boundary in 1783, your pencil moved gracefully from Sault Saint Marie and across Thunder Bay…and suddenly you had to sneeze. And in that nasal explosion, you unwittingly gave Michigan a spot of pristine wilderness that would be cherished for generations. Mostly by generations of moose, but hey – that’s the U.P.

It didn’t matter to you that the island was 15 miles from Canadian shores. No no. You deemed that it would be part of a landmass 56 miles away, so that only the hardiest of folks would come over looking for traces of copper on the island’s shores.

Wolves that walked over on the ice shelf from Ontario years ago greet miners with an, “Eh der!”, only to face bewildered looks – the Canadian traditional greeting lost in translation.

Boundaries zigging. Boundaries zagging. Rand McNally’s got nothing on you. So join us on Isle Royale, Mr. Shakyhands Cartographer. Because if you seek a pleasant peninsula IN AMERICA…look about you.

Greenstone Ridge Trail

Allison hiking from our campsite at the Daisy Farm campground to our next camping site at Moskey Basin.

Kate during 12 mile hike back to Rock Harbor (our starting point of the trip)

Keweenaw native Heather Courtney has been hard at work. Her latest work, “Where Soldiers Come From”, documents a group of friends form the Upper Peninsula and throughout their service in the National Guard and serving in Afghanistan.  For four consecutive years she filmed, both in the Keweenaw and in Afghanistan.  The film looks at just how much change a young soldier goes through and how it affects such a small community, friends, and family.

Where Soldiers Come From trailer

The film has been featured close to home at the Traverse City Film Festival, was an official selection for the Los Angeles Film Festival and won Best Editing for Documentary Feature at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival.

Here’s a great great interview with Heather Courtney from the Traverse City Film Festival and you can read more about on the official website.  Stay tuned for upcoming screenings, one is scheduled in Calumet and another in Detroit.

Upcoming Screenings

Village East Cinemas
New York, NY
Opens Sept. 9, 2011

Gene Siskel Theater
Chicago, IL
Opens Sept. 16, 2011

Calumet Theater
Calumet, MI
Sept. 25 – Sept. 30, 2011

Detroit Institute of Art
Detroit, MI
Sept. 30 – Oct. 2, 2011

Alamo Drafthouse
Austin, TX
Oct. 12, 13 and 15, 2011

Heather’s work also includes “Los Trabajadores/The Workers”, a 2001 documentary about immigrant day laborers and “Letters from the Other Side”, a 2006 document about women and children left behind in Mexico.

Now this spotting was a big surprise! Linda on Facebook shared this and we couldn’t be more delighted to see more Yooper Steez being represented in the Big Apple.

Apparently this video is associated with a TV show called “The Glee Project”, not something we’re familiar with, perhaps you can shed some light in the comments section. Maybe we can even track down who it is in the video, though they did a pretty good job blurring out other faces in the video.

From our friend Elizabeth who posted this great Upper Peninsula find on Facebook:

“Found this in the ladies room in PT O’Malley’s in East Lansing”

To whomever wrote it, we couldn’t agree more!

If you’re using Twitter don’t forget to use the hashtag #LoveDaUP when talking about the Upper Peninsula.

Image from the Michigan State University Museum

This week WKAR reported that this spring a 9000-year-old tool was found by Dale Kennedy while he was in his garden in Hermansville. The tool, pictured above, is not housed at the Michigan State University Museum. Bill Love, the museum’s anthropology curator, spoke with WKAR about the rare find.

Love mentions that the tool is distintive among the early time periods of the Great Lakes Region, known as the Paleo-Indian time period. He says it is one of the earliest pieces found, but very few pieces have been found in the Upper Peninsula. Love goes on to say…

“One of the things that’s important about this is that it doesn’t come from the area around Marquette, which is where almost everything else has been found. So, we had a very limited view of the kinds of environments people were adapting to as they moved into the western Upper Peninsula. It appears that what they were doing is moving between central Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, probably following migratory game such as caribou. Caribou have a very specific kind of habitat. This comes from a very different location. It comes from a more southern location, with a different environment, one that’s got more wetlands and is nearer Lake Michigan. It speaks to the fact that we have people occupying different habitats and exploiting them. We didn’t have that evidence before. It adds to the story. “

It’s an interesting and worthwhile read on the history of the Upper Peninsula. You can read more and listen to the full interview on WKAR’s website.

Yooper Steez has just branched out in a big way… skateboards!

Yooper Steez isn’t a skateboard company, but has always drawn inspiration from the skateboarding and snowboarding culture. This is just one product (of many more to come) that offers a way for Yoopers to show their love for the Upper Peninsula. With each product we offer, we hope another person can represent the Upper Peninsula in a new way. Skateboards are one more way Yooper Steez can expand our mission to offer unique, original, fresh, and quality Upper Peninsula related products.

Introducing Lumber Jack

Allow me introduce you to Lumber Jack. He’s the epitome of a Yooper. He wears wool plaid shirts, he spends lots of time in the woods and he’s got one mean looking beard. Jack loves the Upper Peninsula as much as we do, from the forest to the Great Lakes.

Lumberjack Jack represents the Yooper in all of us.

→ Courage

→ Determination

→ Strong will

→ Fortitude

→ Having guts

→ Grit

→ Endurance

Recently an article titled “Michigan’s Upper Peninsula struggles to survive” seemed to make headlines in every news source in the Upper Peninsula, many across the state, and a few national sources. In each case the reporters failed to mention that, Finnish or not, Yoopers have sisu.

Sisu embodies all of the characteristics mentioned above and is an ability to overcome adversity. However, sisu is not defined by a moment of courage. Sisu is continuous, the ability to sustain pressure and adversity over long periods of time.

The idea of sisu is highly regarded in the history of Finnish culture, a culture that has flourished in the Upper Peninsula. Today nearly 16% of people in the Upper Peninsula have a Finnish heritage. The core of it being in the Keweenaw, home to Finlandia University. With the Upper Peninsula’s strong Finnish heritage we too have embraced the quality of sisu.

Whichever words above you use to define sisu, it is an idea that’s been long embraced by Yoopers. The New York Times in 1940 said that sisu is “A word that explains Finland.” They go on to say:

“They will tell you it is the most wonderful of all their words. It is not easily translated, because no other language has its precise equivalent. Even the Finns have difficulty in defining it.”

A TIME Magazine article published in 1943 further elaborates on concept of sisu.

“… sisu enables [the Finnish] to say: ‘We have nothing worse than death to fear.’”

If the Upper Peninsula is “struggling to survive” or not (Yooper Steez remains biased), we’ll leave for the experts to determine. At the end of the day we have something more important, sisu.

Today I stumbled across an intriguing set of photos on Flickr.  In 1991 James Baldiga found a roll of film in the woods near a waterfall in the Huron Mountains. It seems a little mysterious to me, a crashed helicopter and a trellis with flowers? The comments on Flickr suggest most of the photos were taken from the USS Battleship Alabama Memorial Park in Mobile, AL. He has this to say about it…

I found this roll of film in the Summer of 1991, in the woods, near a well-known waterfall in the Huron Mountains of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

After almost 20 years, I finally had it developed.

Was that really a helicopter crash?

Who are these people?

Where were they?

If I ever find another roll of unexposed film, I probably won’t wait as long to get it developed.

I’d love to hear about it if you recognize any of the places or people in these photos.

My hope is that we can figure something out, so feel free to leave a comment.  A few of the photos are included below and you can see the rest of them on the Flickr gallery.