The Winter Wilderness Companion: Traditional and Native American Skills for the Undiscovered Season

by Alexandra Conover and Garrett Conover

The Winter Wilderness Companion is a unique and inspirational guide to outdoor skills from authors named to Outside magazine's exclusive list of 12 "Twentieth Century Heroes for a New Millennium."... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 007136417X
• ISBN13: 9780071364171
• Release Date: August 2000
• Publisher: International Marine Publishing
• Length: 358 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.4" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Winter living...in the great outdoors

After living and camping for 10 years North of the treeline I have recently moved to the forest country of Canada's NWT. I have been on a steep learning curve made much shorter by this wonderful book. I have retrofitted a couple of kids toboggans and my wife and I have been out nearly every day practicing the techniques and equipment found in the book. All I can say is good, solid advice from people who know what they are talking about. My favourite writer since Rustrum!

Great view of modern DIY traditionalism

One reviewer says he didn't like this book's subhead. To me, it's the part of the title that really describes the book. The subhead tells you it's not a typical winter book, but a unique one that shows how wilderness travel is really done up in the northwoods...using methods that have been passed down thru generations. However, their materials adapt to the times whenever that seems best. Thus they're happy to use roll-up plastic sleds, in a "traditional" way. Note that the subhead doesn't say "re-enactment" or "historic" travel. Traditional travel in their sense means how local northwoods people camp today. That seems to be their drift, anyway. As a result, I appreciate the coverage of both snowmobiles and snowshoes. They go together. Now, canvas tents might not be right for everyone, but I appreciate them for long, cold, group outings. I think that for such use, they're best. Trust these folks and their local, ethnic sources. I liked the realistic, inclusive style of this book. This is not pricey vacation resort travel. This is do-it-yourself make-do homebrew travel. I notice that there wasn't much emphasis on the fancy new snowshoes, but instead on the wide variety of traditional models that are still available if you know where to look (not in the yuppy shops that you find far from the boonies). In deep offtrail open area snow, if you plan to travel, you need some nice long, narrow Alaskans. I find the modern shoes to be suitable for crust, gullies, trails...conditions I don't shoe in. Or hardly anyone I know. The recent takeover by hightech shoes is silly. I also appreciate seeing the lady author with her string of gunshot grouse...not a common image in today's backpacking books. But a common one in traditional northwoods living. This is a one of a kind book. No other contemporary book is as practical or personable. This book has character...ever rarer in publishing.

Great things come in small packages.

When I first looked at the Conover's book, I admit I put it back on the store shelf and went on to other things. My wife had just given me my third pair of backcountry skis, and I wasn't too hot on plodding around on snowshoes. A few minutes later, I picked the book up again, and flipped through it some more. I sat down in a chair by the fireplace (reallly nice store!) and started reading snippets, and knew I had to buy it. I ski and I camp in the winter. Not the way the Conovers describe, but now I am looking forward to trying their "traditional" methods. My circa 1981 snowshoes have seen much more use since reading this book. My wife and I have invested in mukluks, because, as the book states, they really do keep your feet warm in really cold weather! This little book is just crammed with useful information for anyone who ventures out in the winter cold and snow, whether it's for a hike or for the night.Snowshoes are enjoying a resurgence in popularity right now, and "The Winter Wilderness Companion" can help new snowshoers get more out of their gear. But the book's true worth lies in the possibilities it opens for getting beyond the local park and forest, and using traditional (some may say "old-fashioned") gear and skills to stay warm and survive with style in the winter backcountry. Imagine hiking through a -40 degree forest, setting up camp, and having a +60 degree tent to retreat into for the night!"The Winter Wilderness Companion" can open your eyes, and open your mind to a whole new way of enjoying a whole new season of outdoor fun in a grand, old way. It's compact size makes it convenient to carry with you, too! In 30 years as a ranger, ski patroller and search and rescue volunteer, I feel it is one of the very best books on winter travel and camping I have ever had the pleasure of reading.

Winter Camping Can Be Fun and Comfortable

Snow camping can be at once beautiful, uplifting and unforgiving. As a Scoutmaster in the northwest, I've enjoyed passing on skills to both youngsters and their parents. The Conovers do an excellent job in this book on several counts. They pass on their appreciation for the wilderness, particularly when it's mantled with snow. At times their writing is lyrical in describing the beauty of the winter wilderness, and their satisfaction in living a simple life in such a setting. In an era when success is defined by how many possessions one has accumulated and how far they've separated themselves from the natural world, the Conovers offer a compelling vision.But this work also offers excellent strategies for not only surviving an outing in the snow-covered wilderness, but making it thoroughly enjoyable-even for the novice. Step by step, they offer excellent tips and strategies for handling everything from food selection and cooking, campsite and clothing selection to travel methods. They explore the advantages of adapting native techniques, and provide readers with contacts and practical directions.It is important to recognize at the outset that this work is based on winter travel in the northeast. Winter campers based in more mountainous regions will find only parts of the book applicable to their environment; the Conovers are straight-forward in pointing that out. Using toboggans and carrying large tents simply isn't practical in areas of larger elevation changes; it could be inviting a hernia! There isn't any discussion of snow cave or igloo construction, important to mountaineers. Good references for these areas would include the Scout handbook entitled Okpik. But overall, a worthwhile book with much to offer; readers may be left wanting to join the Conovers on one of their guided trips!