This Land of Snow: A Journey Across the North in Winter

by Anders Morley

Overview

2021 National Outdoor Book Award Winner in Journeys

A passionate skier since he was a child, Anders Morley dreamed of going on a significant adventure, something bold and of his own design. And so one year in his early thirties, he decided to strap on cross-country skis to travel across Canada in the winter alone.

This Land of Snow is about that journey and a man who must come to terms with what he has left behind, as well as how he wants to continue living after his trip is over. It is an honest, thoughtful, and humorous reckoning of an adventure filled with adrenalin and exuberance, as well as mistakes and danger. Along the way readers gain insight, both charming and fascinating, into Northern outdoor culture and modern-day wilderness living, the history of northern exploration and Nordic skiing, the right to roam movement, winter ecology, and more.

Throughout, Morley’s clear, subtle, and self-deprecating voice speaks to a backwoods-genteel aesthetic that explores the dichotomy between wildness and refinement, language and personal story, journey and home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781680512724
Publisher:	Mountaineers Books, The
Publication date:	08/12/2020
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,023,602
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

A dual-citizen of the US and Canada, Anders Morley grew up in New Hampshire and began skiing at age five. After earning a master’s degree from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, he settled in Italy where he worked as a translator and English teacher, and explored the Alps in his free time. He contributes regularly to New Hampshire magazine and his work has appeared in a variety of other publications including The Globe and Mail, Northern Woodlands magazine, Maisonneuve magazine, and The Aurorean. Anders lives on Wolfe Island, Ontario.

Table of Contents

Author's Note 9

Morley's Route 10

Part 1 Pacific Ocean to Terrace

1 Prince Rupert 14

2 Origins 20

3 Highway of Tears 30

4 Advance and Retreat 37

5 Terrace 45

Part 2 Terrace to Fort Saint James

6 Finally Skiing 52

7 Over the Mountains 60

8 Lights in the Forest 66

9 Into the Babine 78

10 Among Loggers 83

11 End of the Earth 92

12 Christmas 99

Part 3 Prince George to Slave Lake

13 Great Divide 108

14 Peace Country 120

15 McLennan 125

16 Cold 132

17 Winter 136

18 Lesser Slave Lake 141

19 Edmonton 150

Part 4 Edmonton To Lac La Ronge

20 Paradise Below Zero 154

21 In Cree Country 161

22 Maps and Dreams 166

23 Canoe Lake 169

24 The Cossack 173

25 Pinehouse 178

26 The Pearl Necklace 186

27 Ordeal by Ice 192

28 La Ronge 200

29 Lac La Ronge 203

30 Trails 208

Part 5 Lac La Ronge to Winnipeg

31 The Sunless City 216

32 On the Shield 225

33 Zoë 230

34 Dad 237

35 Thaw 245

Acknowledgments 251

Suggested Reading 253

Editorial Reviews

10/05/2020

Journalist Morley debuts with a thoughtful and inspiring account of his cross-country skiing journey across North America. A New Hampshire native, Morley writes of how he fell in love with skiing and literary tales of adventure from an early age, and planned his trip as “medicine for my diffuse sense of nostalgia and civilizational glut,” while working as an English translator and living in Italy with his Italian wife. Though the intensity of organizing his trip fractured his marriage “perhaps beyond repair,” he forged on. Morley, in his 30s, started in British Columbia and skiied nearly 2,000 miles east to Manitoba from November 2012 to early March 2013. He traveled solo, but the kindness of strangers—rowdy loggers, hospitable First Nations folks, and fellow outdoors people among them—buoyed his spirits and provided Morley with much needed support. These characters add an upbeat quality to the narrative amid the descriptions of Canada’s cold, wintry landscape. Though the trip came to a chaotic, abrupt halt that left Morley thinking his trek was “a wasted opportunity,” he soon realized the experience revealed his true weaknesses, which left him in a position to work on fixing his life and marriage. Morley weaves together human and natural history with skill, and his philosophy on winter and its purpose—“to reveal weaknesses in living things”—captures the season’s beauty. Those with a taste for adventure and an appreciation for nature’s gifts will enjoy this moving expedition. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

This Land of Snow is a tour-de-force of adventure writing.... This is what great journey writing is all about: an inward and outward adventure that entertains and enlightens. An outstanding work!

National Outdoor Book Awards

A captivating memoir about backcountry adventures and one man’s journey of self-discovery—and an eloquent ode to the harsh beauty of winter.

Booklist Starred Review - Brenda Barrera