Snow Walker's Companion: Winter Camping Skills for the North Book

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.