Snow Walker's Companion: Winter Trail Skills from the Far North

by Alexandra Conover and Garrett Conover

This guide teaches how to live and travel in the winter wilderness using Native American nomadic skills. It includes plans and detailed building instructions (as well as sources for those who would... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0070228922
• ISBN13: 9780070228924
• Release Date: October 1994
• Publisher: Ragged Mountain Press
• Length: 238 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book on winter travel

I bought this book when it was called the The Winter Wilderness Companion: Traditional and Native American Skills for the Undiscovered Season this original edition has been revised as the new Snow Walker's Companion: Winter Camping Skills for the North, with new plans for a traditional wooden toboggan and more trail-craft tips. I've used the plans to make my own mukluks and mittens with great success and can throughly recommend this book for both beginners and experienced outdoors folks alike. For those who are really serious about learning winter skills, it would be worth checking out the Conover's website at [...] Although the book is evocatively written with phrases like "...frosted hair makes long haired women look like fairy-tale damsels and bearded men like hoary old walruses..." there is no lack of attention to detail, with meticulous research and dirt-time experience. The Conovers are arguably some of the most experienced winter travel guides around, and this book is testament to that.

A superb book on winter travel in the bush

This book is first-class! It has the attention to detail that only the Conovers, both Maine Guides, could bring to it.It covers snowshoes, bindings, moccasins, boots, toboggans, tents, stoves, food, clothes, and travel by snowmobile. There is even an excellent discussion on the psychology of winter camping.The emphasis is on winter traveling the way Native Americans have done and are still doing it -- in a safe and comfortable way.The sources of equipment and further information at the end of each chapter are very valuable.I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in winter wilderness travel and camping or in the material culture of the Native Americans of the Sub-Arctic boreal areas.Rich Howe

One of the Greatest Outdoor books of our generation.

I cannot snowshoe very often in Tennessee (hah ha) but this book makes me wish I could. I had read Garrett's Beyond the Paddle and loved it so I got this book and was blown away. I would reccomend it to anyone who likes to camp-out in woodland areas in the winter. Every view in this book is perceptive, inciteful and entertaining. Do not pass this one up. It ranks up there with the works of Bill Mason, Cache Lake Country and works by Calvin Rustrum.

Not merely incredibly informative, but beautifully written.

Others have rightly focused on the contents of this gem. In addition, this book is a great "read." On top of that, there are photos that will show you such stunning things as the sheer beauty of Native American designs woven into the babitch "fillings" of snowshoes. To top it off, you get patterns for making your own cotton anorak shell! Just a great book, up there with Cache Lake Country [out of print] and True North [out of print]. Get this one before this masterpiece too goes "out of print" in a country whose publishers allow such tragedies to happen.