High Country

Literature of the American West Series

by Willard Wyman

The packer’s business is guiding mule trains into mountains where wagons can’t travel. It’s a life of danger, long days, and low pay. But for those wedded to the wilderness and inaccessible high country, it is the only life there is.

During the Great Depression, young Ty Hardin is sent from his family’s failing Montana ranch to learn from the last of the great packers, Fenton Pardee, legendary in the Montana Rockies for his packing adventures across the Swan Range all the way to the Big Divide. High Country follows Ty through this apprenticeship and into World War II, where he watches trucks and jeeps replace the army’s mules. Wounded and shipped home, Ty recovers by packing into the Montana mountains he loves. After his mentor dies, Ty leaves Montana for the Sierra Nevada—the highest country of all—where he becomes a legend in his own right.

Writing in the tradition of Norman Maclean’s A River Runs through It, Willard Wyman shares techniques of breaking and packing and leading animals into forbidding country, hunting and tracking, and making camp. Wyman brings you so close to the packer’s life you smell the leather, sweat, and oil.

Genres: Fiction, Westerns, Historical Fiction

368 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2005

Reviews

[Richard Wheeler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Willard Wyman's great novel of the high country of Montana won a Spur Award and great respect from reviewers. It opens between the world wars, and closes mid-century, and follows a troubled young man, Ty Hardin, who looks for healing in the mysterious mountain ranges of northern Montana. He becomes the protege of a veteran packer, Fenton Pardee, who takes supplies into Forest Service camps, or takes adventurers deep into wilderness. This is a vivdly written, gracious story about the ways hat life beyond the rim of civilization can rest the heart and soul of a troubled person. Mr. Wyman, former academic at Stanford and elsewhere, has penned a poetic and tender novel.

[Kristin]

This book was my best shot at liking a Western. I was enjoying it in the beginning--the scenery, the slow-talking and realistic conversations, the time period detail. I liked that it wasn't like seemingly all other Westerns in which every single person has a ridiculous nickname and 3/4 of the words necessary to construct a sentence are simply left off, making each phrase seem belched instead of spoken. But then, as I started to get bored, I looked through the rest of the book to see if anything new was going to happen, and it looked like by the end, nothing actually had happened. It didn't seem like a story--just a bland and purposeless snapshot. And in the process of looking through the rest of the book, I also came upon a thick patch of sex scenes that were so grotesque that I didn't pick the book up again except to give it back to the library. I mean, it's not just sex, but super kinky, gross, and really frequent sex, with one slutty woman being shared by multiple men of drastically different ages. It just devolved into bizarre porno. Creepy.

[Kathleen (itpdx) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an absorbing, touching and very western tale.
Ty Hardin is a teen-ager whose Montana ranch family is struggling in the Depression. His deft touch with animals wins him a place with a legendary packer, Fenton Pardee. Packers take people and supplies into the high country on mules and horses. Once I let go of not understanding the technical lingo of saddles and pack rigging, I enjoyed the stories of humans and animals, weather and trails.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great telling of a story in a lost country, about unforgettable characters. Beautifully written and deeply moving tale of a quiet man in the biggest country, a packer with his mules and his friends and his family. This one is special.

[Pilar Wyman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The man can write! He takes us there. I can't wait to go back.

[Paladin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a lot of plot, more day-to-day living, like a journal (but not a journal). High Country is a fictional biography, which begins with a teenage Montana boy, and follows him through the rest of his life. He was a packer, mostly in Montana (e.g., the Bob Marshall Wilderness) and later in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. As a packer, he took tourists and hunters deep into the wilderness mountains on horses, using mules to pack all of the supplies, tents, etc. There is a lot of coverage of his loves and losses. I read this book because it was listed on a website as the story of a man's man.

[Elaine Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not put this book down!!! If you have any interest in the Rocky Mountains, Montana, Sierra Nevada Mountains, and the adventures that can happen, this is for you. If you have ever visited Montana this is a must. It has a lot of really well told characters that seem like you really do know them, go for it. Such a well told story!

[Paulette · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf

[Mary Osenga · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good, but pretty draggy

[Ricky Mikeabono · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon this book. I enjoy westerns but I found one to be extraordinarily uninteresting. The characters and setting felt undeveloped. Important events happened in a sentence or two, but pointless conversations lagged on for pages. It felt like it was trying to emulate the style of a classic american western style, but fell short.

[Zeb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. You go on a journey with the mule trains, over the Rocky mountains and then the Sierra Nevada, and get to meet some of the real people of the setting. The author having lived much of this life, it is authentic and believable. Parts of the book drag on a bit more than others, but overall definitely not time wasted to read. All the more for me, since the lives here described resemble these of relations of my man. Not in the Rocky mountains, but the New Zealand Alps, not in mule trains but mustering gangs, but many similarities no doubt in the outlook on life, and many shared experiences. No bears here in NZ, just boars and sudden cliffs to fall off. And weather to kill you.

[Joell · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 3.5 stars. I really liked the characters and Wyman really loved the country, so even though I struggled through the first third what what felt like some rocky transitions, I kept on. The strong, silent, big and quiet hero with tough but beautiful women peppering the story should be cliche, but it worked here, again because the author so clearly knows and loves the country.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The way Wyman writes about the mountains is enough to like this novel. Even better when combined with the life story of a young man whos grows up during the Great Depression finding his passion in the backcountry of the mountains. Wyman portrays well a "west" transitioning and fading with the people who lived it.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book which was a surprise since it is outside my normal genres. An excellent story about a legendary mule packer and mountain man from Montana and then later, the High Sierra. He even chums with Norman Clyde! Recommended!

[Rebekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book fed my nostalgia for packing in a way nothing other than my own memories and shared stories with friends ever has. Mr. Wyman's writing style is quietly superb. The words etch onto your mind's eye and take you to real places with characters so well written they might as well breathe.

[Patti · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing in this book is absolutely cinematic

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read my review at my blog.

[Hrn1947 · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the best books i have read. the charactures come alive in a way not often seen. you want to know these people, you want to be with people. great story!

[Andrew]

kinda boring...might revisit later