Recent Work-Marquette Backcountry Ski

Here's the December 2011 Traverse magazine profile I wrote and shot featuring Marquette inventor David Ollila and his Marquette Backcountry Ski. The ski was developed for the Lake Superior hills of Michigan's Upper Peninsula but is proving popular all over.

 

Aaron Peterson is a photographer and writer based near Marquette and Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  For more of his work visit www.aaronpeterson.net

Recent Work-Marquette Backcountry Ski

The December issue of Traverse magazine has my five page profile of Marquette, Michigan native, entrepreneur, inventor and all around outdoor nut Dave Ollila and his latest innovation, the Marquette Backcountry Ski.

Dave O developed the Marquette Backcountry Ski (it's a mouthful, maybe just MBS?) for terrain like that found in the Upper Peninsula. Short, steep, brushy, gnarly wooded hurt locker sort of stuff--lots of potential for fun, but also for damage to those pretty, expensive skis designed for the open pow of actual mountains 1,500 miles to the west of the Lake Superior snowbelt we call home.

The ski is designed for the terrain of places like the Upper Peninsula, but what I found interesting is that it reflects the spirit of those who tend to gravitate to places like the U.P., Northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ontario, Vermont (maybe) etc: tough, reliable, no frills. We are not pretty or fancy, but we tend to get st#ff done. This is not the land of steez; this is the land of cheese. I could go on, but I think Keillor has used up most of the good stuff.

It's a good ski. It's a good article. Check them both out if you get the chance.

Marquette Backcountry Ski

I know it's a little late in the season to finally get around to posting about a new ski, but here it goes.

Dave Ollila, serial entrepreneur, adrenaline junkie, inventor of the original helmet cam and Marquette, Mich. native has blessed the quiver of snow addicts everywhere with the Marquette Backcountry Ski.

It's short. Fat. Stiff. Sorta ugly, and so much fun I don't know how I lived without it.

Bottom line is, it's a short, wide, affordable ski with big scales on the bottom for climbing. Paired with a three-pin binding and a pair of modern telemark boots it's a useful tool for scrambling around the rolling wooded hills in places like the Upper Peninsula, Northern Minnesota, Ontario, and tons of other places where there's snow and a will to descend it.

Ollila markets it as 70 percent ski, 30 percent snowshoe and 100 percent fun. There's all kinds of argument in the--let's just admit it--snobby ski world, but Dave O is dead-on about the fun part. They are fun, and that's what it's all about, right?

Here's what some other folks have to say about it:

One

Two

Three

I'll be profiling Ollila in an upcoming issue of Traverse magazine. Stay tuned.