Snow – Finding Paradise Below Zero by Hap Wilson

Snow – Finding Paradise Below Zero by Hap Wilson
Publisher: Latitude 46
Genre: Non-Fiction, Action/Adventure, Historical
Rating: Best Book
Reviewed by Astilbe

Henry David Thoreau famously explains that “he went to the woods because he wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life,” a principle Wilson adopted when he spent a lifetime searching for answers while exploring Canada’s wilderness in all seasons. SNOW – Finding Paradise Below Zero, follows Wilson on his many escapades in the dead of winter, suffering frostbite, isolation, near-death experiences, surviving six months enduring a remote winter with two infants in diapers, and as a park warden in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. This is a deeper look into the evolution of camping gear and techniques, but more importantly, how to overcome adversity to live comfortably in the wilds of winter, to find paradise below zero.

Few things are more beautiful or potentially more deadly than long winter trips in the wilderness.

I loved how honest Mr. Wilson was about the mistakes he’s made on various winter trips. There were multiple occasions when his assumptions about the weather or his own breadth of knowledge or ability to survive under such harsh conditions could have ended in tragedy, and he wasn’t hesitant to admit that these were bad decisions in retrospect. One of the most memorable examples of this happened when he and his wife decided to spend six months living in an isolated cabin over the winter with their infant and toddler. This was a baffling choice to me at first, especially given how many hours a day the parents needed to spend washing cloth diapers and how fragile children these ages can be, but I admired how deeply the author dug into what happened to him and his family over those long, cold months and why he thought this was a good decision.

Understanding the appeal of hiking, camping, canoeing, or living in remote cabins over the winter was key to enjoying this book, and the author gave plenty of examples of why the risks were well worth it to him. I particularly enjoyed his descriptions of the peaceful days he and his companions knew when all was going well and the many different types of wild animals they had safe interactions with along the way. His warm feelings about nature permeated almost every single scene, and they helped to explain why he was so eager to return to it no matter what else was happening in his life at the time.

This was an illuminating look at the recent history of a subculture I knew very little about which is one of the biggest benefits of being a reader in my opinion. One never knows what they’ll discover in the next chapter! I’ll admit to being shocked by some of the trips Mr. Wilson took due to how many risks were involved with them, especially in the 1970s and 1980s when hikers did not have cell phones or other types of technology to assist them during an emergency, yet I always remained interested in his motivations for doing so and learned a lot about him and people who crave time in remote corners of nature and winter adventures in the process. ,

Snow: Finding Paradise Below Zero couldn’t have been a more exciting or thought-provoking read.