This Land of Snow

A Journey Across the North in Winter

By: Anders Morley

Narrated by: Basil Sands

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 30s, 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 adrenaline and exuberance, as well as mistakes and danger. Along the way listeners 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.

©2020 Anders Morley (P)2020 Tantor

Great listen, better by a campfire.

I was brought along on a well written and personal adventure told by the traveler himself.

Bait and Switch

An appropriate subtitle would have been "My marriage, my dissatisfaction with life, and what I learned attempting (poorly) to ski across Canada." The parts of the story that focused on skiing were lovely, but the injection of his marriage and it's central role was unwelcome. It was like he was a Floridian, upset with himself for having become too used to A/C, and then just wanted to whine and pine. And the pages long diatribe about metaphorical trails was atrocious.
Also wasn't a fan of the narrator's phrasing or "voices".