14
Wednesday, July 24, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Steven Peterzen — a life of adventure
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
Steven Peterzen has spent
a lifetime saying <yes= to
adventure. And it9s led him
to extraordinary experiences
across the globe.
Peterzen, who has lived
in Sisters for the past decade,
is the founder and owner
of ISTAR Stratospheric
Ballooning. ISTAR launches
and recovers payloads for
scientific and technological
experiments for agencies,
companies and academic
institutions. The recovery
field operations are often
adventurous, since flights are
usually terminated in remote
areas.
Peterzen often works with
locals, including native peo-
ples in Arctic regions, to ski
in and remove 10 percent of
the flight equipment from the
landing area.
It9s all just part of the job
4 a very enjoyable part of
the job 4 for a man who has
spent his entire life engaged in
outdoor activities from skiing
to sea kayaking to climbing to
sailing to cycling and more.
Peterzen grew up along
a creek at the Ohio-Illinois
border along the Mississippi
River. His parents were avid
paddlers.
<I started paddling, really,
before my memory,= he told
The Nugget. <We canoed and
tent-camped all over. That just
stayed with me.=
Peterzen9s love of outdoor
adventure early on paired with
a passion for science.
Along that creek where he
grew up, he was constantly
<turning over rocks to look at
the insects and crawdads.= He
was inspired further in high
school in Clinton, Iowa.
<I had a fantastic science
teacher,= he said. <I did the
summer camps, everything I
could to stay involved with
it.=
Peterzen took up climb-
ing at age 16, and hitchhiked
across the country at age 20
to pursue that passion. He
found himself owning and
operating a guide business
in Lander, Wyoming. That9s
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when destiny came calling.
A man called looking for
someone with Peterzen9s skill-
set to be a support contractor
setting up a field camp for a
National Science Foundation/
University of Wisconsin gla-
ciology project in Antarctica.
<When he dropped the
word Antarctica 4 yeah, how
soon can I get there,= Peterzen
recalled.
His wife, Francie, and their
new baby stayed in the log
home they9d built themselves
in Wyoming 4 an adven-
ture in its own right 4 while
Steven worked from October
to March in Antarctica.
<I was able to talk to
my wife once (by satellite
phone),= Peterzen said.
The Antarctica project
opened a lot of doors and
a broad vista to Peterzen.
Despite his love for science,
he had shied away from a
career that might confine him
to a lab working on some
obscure element of inquiry.
This work offered him a dif-
ferent and more congenial
path.
<Here was all this science
before me,= he said. And he
didn9t have to specialize 4
any subject area was open to
him.
<I wanted to play with
ALL of them,= he said.
The Antarctica project led
to work on an ice shelf in
Greenland, drilling and set-
ting off explosive charges to
gauge seismic activity, and
eventually into sending scien-
tific payloads into the strato-
sphere with balloons.
The ISTAR website notes
that:
<In 1991, ISTAR began
supporting stratospheric
8Near Space9 research pro-
grams utilizing high altitude
balloons. This first balloon
campaign was directly in sup-
port of a NASA-funded ozone
investigation over Greenland
with a team from Harvard
University. In 1992, ISTAR
took the field management
role of the NASA-funded
stratospheric balloon program
in Antarctica.
<From 1992 through 2001,
ISTAR successfully managed
over 20 separate 800,000 m3
balloons from Antarctica and
launched a series of smaller
balloons. During that period,
ISTAR also managed and led
the recovery team of the pay-
loads and flight hardware.=
His work would lead
him from Arctic regions to
Morocco and a stint working
in Italy with the Italian Space
Agency.
Peterzen9s value reflects
a simple yet rare quality 4
he knows how to do a lot of
things and has a knack for
getting things done when the
chips are down and the money
is short. His skill set is very
broad, ranging from a long
list of wilderness skill certi-
fications to heavy equipment
operation and project man-
agement. And he9s a natural
problem-solver.
<You have this bag of tricks
in your pocket that you can
use to make a project success-
ful without always digging
into your pocket,= he said.
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Steven Peterzen has worked in some of the harshest environments in the
world.
Adventure isn9t just needed when managing field
Peterzen9s job 4 it9s a way operations in ballooning.=
of life for him and his whole
Peterzen came to Sisters
family.
10 years ago because <it9s an
For nearly four years they ideal location= for the life he
lived aboard and cruised their chooses to lead. He9s been
sailboat <Totem.=
an avid skier since he was a
Peterzen noted that sail- kid, and enjoys teaching at
ing <also honed our skills in Hoodoo.
weather observations, rigging
<I don9t need a huge moun-
applications, mechanical and tain, but I need a fun moun-
electrical troubleshooting, tain,= he said. <And Hoodoo
and the overall maintenance.
See ADVENTURE on page 26
These skills parallel the efforts
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