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Snow Walker's Companion: Winter Camping Skills for the North
A guide to comfortable winter camping using native skills. Learn how to sleep warm, travel safe and many other secrets. A 32-page, full-color insert on the authors' epic, 350-mile snowshoe trip across Labrador.
288 pages, Paperback
First published October 26, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 23, 2018
I bought this book when I moved from New Mexico to Alaska twenty years ago. At that time I read it for practical advice on how to dress and move in weather I never experienced in Albuquerque. As it turned out, I only spent a year in Alaska before moving back to the Rockies, but learning from the Conover's advice in Snow Walker's made the winter I spent up there much more comfortable and enjoyable.
The book includes patterns for traditional winter clothing and tents. I made both the mittens with liners and the moccasins with liners, using directions in the book. Both designs were very functional and warm.
But more than a how-to book, Snow Walker's Companion makes the case that Native methods developed over thousands of years are not low tech, just different tech from the modern Camping Gear Industrial Complex that drives availability and philosophy in most outdoor magazines and mainstream stores. Whether or not you think you'll ever pull your outfit on a toboggan along a frozen river, you should read this book for it's description of an ancient, traditional, elegant, and still viable interaction with nature.
The book includes patterns for traditional winter clothing and tents. I made both the mittens with liners and the moccasins with liners, using directions in the book. Both designs were very functional and warm.
But more than a how-to book, Snow Walker's Companion makes the case that Native methods developed over thousands of years are not low tech, just different tech from the modern Camping Gear Industrial Complex that drives availability and philosophy in most outdoor magazines and mainstream stores. Whether or not you think you'll ever pull your outfit on a toboggan along a frozen river, you should read this book for it's description of an ancient, traditional, elegant, and still viable interaction with nature.
February 25, 2018
This is the book if you are serious about trekking to remote northern forests in the middle of winter. It is thorough in its approach and is a dense and detail packed read. You will find yourself referring to it regularly if you want to venture out into the deep cold and survive.
The authors are veteran winter trekkers and have spent a large amount of time in Northern Quebec and Labrador and their experiences there as well as their learnings from the remaining aboriginals have been codified into a system and approach to winter trekking that is entirely focused on "traditional" methods.
Specifically the authors eschew modern materials (goretex, and other synthetics) and are devotees of wool, cotton, custom native made snowshoes, "hot" tents with stoves and also the ability to supplement one's diet by hunting and fishing.
This is not a book for those who ascribe to the "ultra-light" philosophy. An ultra-lighter will absolutely cringe at the heavy loads that the Conovers drag with them (by toboggan) for hundreds of miles.
The Conovers justify this by saying that their inclusion of hot tents and stoves helps your body stay warm without having to burn precious calories and allow you to dry clothes more quickly.
At the same time however their methods do require a lot more work. not only would you be burning more calories by hauling heavier loads but also you would need to cut firewood every day to keep the stove burning for at least 12 hours. and also you need to have enough wood left over to cook your breakfast and warm your tent the next morning. So it isn't necessarily a calorie saving method. But I don't know that anyone has researched this.
Their disdain for synthetics is certainly understandable. They aren't as breathable as touted and this can be problematic (even deadly) in low temperatures. They begrudge mountaineers their affection for goretex and gas burning stoves as being a specialized type of adventurer and not really applicable for trudging through the rough brush of the taiga where delicate (supposedly) fabrics won't hold up to the rough work of wood cutting and wood hauling.
This is somewhat true. However it is well to note that mountaineers were early users of wool and natural fibres - which they have long since abandoned (surely they know something).
Ultimately the Conover's style is one that you can take elements of and blend it to fit your own.
If you are going out for a weekend or slightly longer and are heading to an area that isn't Northern Canada you can probably stick with the goretex and fleece. In fact the authors do concede that in more southern climes the variable temperatures and higher moisture do render some of their clothing (traditional moccasins for example) as less useful.
Here they recommend rubber boots with a felt liner because they can be easily dried in a hot tent (a mere page or two after condemning their use because they are hard to dry).
But the Conover's book is vital and important for two reasons - they are one of the few remaining people who are willing to challenge the current orthodoxy that to survive in the cold you need the latest hi-tech gear and fabrics (they are living proof that it isn't so) and they draw attention to the fact that there is a whole skill-set being lost as elders from the Naskapi and other tribes age and die.
For that alone they deserve a lot of credit.
The authors are veteran winter trekkers and have spent a large amount of time in Northern Quebec and Labrador and their experiences there as well as their learnings from the remaining aboriginals have been codified into a system and approach to winter trekking that is entirely focused on "traditional" methods.
Specifically the authors eschew modern materials (goretex, and other synthetics) and are devotees of wool, cotton, custom native made snowshoes, "hot" tents with stoves and also the ability to supplement one's diet by hunting and fishing.
This is not a book for those who ascribe to the "ultra-light" philosophy. An ultra-lighter will absolutely cringe at the heavy loads that the Conovers drag with them (by toboggan) for hundreds of miles.
The Conovers justify this by saying that their inclusion of hot tents and stoves helps your body stay warm without having to burn precious calories and allow you to dry clothes more quickly.
At the same time however their methods do require a lot more work. not only would you be burning more calories by hauling heavier loads but also you would need to cut firewood every day to keep the stove burning for at least 12 hours. and also you need to have enough wood left over to cook your breakfast and warm your tent the next morning. So it isn't necessarily a calorie saving method. But I don't know that anyone has researched this.
Their disdain for synthetics is certainly understandable. They aren't as breathable as touted and this can be problematic (even deadly) in low temperatures. They begrudge mountaineers their affection for goretex and gas burning stoves as being a specialized type of adventurer and not really applicable for trudging through the rough brush of the taiga where delicate (supposedly) fabrics won't hold up to the rough work of wood cutting and wood hauling.
This is somewhat true. However it is well to note that mountaineers were early users of wool and natural fibres - which they have long since abandoned (surely they know something).
Ultimately the Conover's style is one that you can take elements of and blend it to fit your own.
If you are going out for a weekend or slightly longer and are heading to an area that isn't Northern Canada you can probably stick with the goretex and fleece. In fact the authors do concede that in more southern climes the variable temperatures and higher moisture do render some of their clothing (traditional moccasins for example) as less useful.
Here they recommend rubber boots with a felt liner because they can be easily dried in a hot tent (a mere page or two after condemning their use because they are hard to dry).
But the Conover's book is vital and important for two reasons - they are one of the few remaining people who are willing to challenge the current orthodoxy that to survive in the cold you need the latest hi-tech gear and fabrics (they are living proof that it isn't so) and they draw attention to the fact that there is a whole skill-set being lost as elders from the Naskapi and other tribes age and die.
For that alone they deserve a lot of credit.
November 19, 2023
Actually learned very little from this book, which I consider good, as I've been winter expeditioning for over a decade. Conovers are more experienced than I for certain. I trust their judgement, and can vouch for a lot of the methods, as I've learned them from others or the hard learnings of making mistakes. Still, there is plenty to learn from this, even from similar experience, and it was a fascinating read. I'm buying another copy to have on the winter knowledge shelf of the expedition school I guided at.
Only fault I can find was the limited instruction on the recipe for 'Lassy Toutons, which did taste delicious even if they didn't go quite as planned. I plan to take them on winter trips this season.
Only fault I can find was the limited instruction on the recipe for 'Lassy Toutons, which did taste delicious even if they didn't go quite as planned. I plan to take them on winter trips this season.
February 23, 2020
Borrowed this from the library for the mitten pattern and got enthralled! I'm adding this to my present wish list because I think it would be really useful as a reference source. (I live in southern New England but I also like to be warm in the winter).
February 8, 2015
What a duo, what a guide book. A great how-to enjoy yourself in the middle of nowhere in winter, using traditional methods. I've actually only winter-camped without wood stove and without comfortable gear... I realize I want many things after reading this book: snowshoes, wool pants, chimo hat, anorak, pyramid tent...if I acquire these things, I'm sure I can make winter camping as luxurious as it appears to be for Garrett and Alexandra.
What is UP with "butter buns" - the phenomenon of (according to the authors) getting a rash on your butt and thighs after eating copious amounts of fat? They believe that it happens when you eat a lot of fat on a trip that you aren't doing a lot of physical activity, so you get a rash where one typically gains weight. This seems unscientific but? It has never happened to me, though I have eaten a bit of fat without doing physical activity. I'm left wondering about this...
What is UP with "butter buns" - the phenomenon of (according to the authors) getting a rash on your butt and thighs after eating copious amounts of fat? They believe that it happens when you eat a lot of fat on a trip that you aren't doing a lot of physical activity, so you get a rash where one typically gains weight. This seems unscientific but? It has never happened to me, though I have eaten a bit of fat without doing physical activity. I'm left wondering about this...
August 24, 2016
This book can open a world of winter activity.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews