A little trip down memory lane with the boys from Green Bay.

In a fit of nostalgia this morning I searched the internet for any traces of my outdoor industry Alma Mater, Life Tools Adventure Outfitters.

Life Tools was a full-spectrum specialty outdoor store with few equals in the Midwest. We sold backpacking gear, climbing equipment, sea kayaks, canoes, whitewater kayaks, homebrew supplies, futons (!) and telemark skis. We were into it all and had a loyal clientele that was active on the water and in the woods of Northeast Wisconsin, the UP and beyond.

I worked at LT from 1991 to 1996 or so. My experience there was instrumental in putting me on the career path that has now carried me through more than thirty years in the outdoor industry. In those short years I learned to sea kayak, whitewater kayak, rock climb, telemark ski (poorly) and ice climb (catastrophically!). The middle-aged me misses those days and the adventures that I had learning everything all at once with a true beginners mind.

Now days the only signs of Life Tools on the web is a defunct Wisconsin LLC. And a podcast.

Back in the day, Life Tools was instrumental in organizing a ski rendezvous up in the Porcupine Mountains: Midwest Telefest. Life Tools is gone, but Telefest lives on and has become something of a regional phenomenon. Enough so to attract the attention of Josh Madson, who runs the Freeheel Life website, store and podcast. Josh took the time to sit down with some of my friends and coworkers to talk through early days. It was a blast from the past for me and made me wish I hadn’t donated those skis when I moved down south!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Skis and boots are long gone, but I’ve still got the hat!

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