Welcome to my third annual winter reading list!
It’s finally winter 2021. I know we’re all elated to put 2020 (aka – the year of the dumpster fire) in our rearview mirror. If you’re anything like me, you’re chomping at the bit as you wait for trails to clear of snow and for public health officials to give the “all clear” sign so we can get back outdoors.
So instead of hitting refresh over and over on the PCTA’s (or some other trail association’s) webpage or doom-scrolling through the snowpack reports, why not crack open a book?
Here’s a few great reads I discovered this past year to get you started down that road. If you’re interested in even more outdoor book ideas, head down to the end of this post, where I also have links to my 2019 and 2020 winter reading lists.
WINTER 2021 READING LIST
#1 – JOURNEYS NORTH
Barney “Scout” Mann is a legend in the PCT hiking community. He and his wife, Frodo, have been hosting thru-hikers in their San Diego home and giving them rides out to the Southern Terminus for nearly two decades. And although he could have easily filled a book with stories about the fresh-faced, enthusiastic, and naïve hikers who’ve passed through their doors year after year, this memoir is about his own PCT thru-hike in 2007. Scout shares his story through the lens of his trail family, and his writing will make you miss your own thru-hike with a sense of nostalgia that tears at your soul. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be ready to pack your bags and get on the trail for your own PCT adventure after reading this superb outdoor book! If this memoir whets your appetite, make sure you check out Scout’s inspirational photo coffee table book, The Pacific Crest Trail: Exploring America’s Wilderness Trail or his recent interview on Backpacker Radio (Episode #77).
#2 – ROUND IRELAND WITH A FRIDGE
After accepting a drunken dare in a pub for £100, British comedian Tony Hawks set out to hitchhike around the circumference of Ireland with the a mini-fridge in tow. This comedic memoir follows his haphazard journey in 1997 – in a time well before smart phones or the internet could have made it a cinch to accomplish. Throughout his journey, Hawks relies on this kindness of locals, his regularly-timed progress updates to an Irish radio station (remember the days of FM radio?), and the sheer absurdity of his adventure to propel him around the country. His lack of a structured itinerary results in many bizarre meetings, and he pretty much ends up drinking in every Irish pub he finds. Hawks doesn’t pretend to have any profound moments of self-discovery in this light read (a nice reprieve from current outdoor memoirs like Wild or Walk in the Woods). It’s just a throwback to one silly adventure during simpler pre-pandemic times.
#3 – OUT THERE
I’m a hug fan of Outside Magazine, and this anthology of backcountry stories will have you cringing and simultaneously rolling with laughter as fellow travelers recount recount their memorable outdoor tales. Billed as the “wildest stories” from Outside Magazine, the very first story by Wells Tower kicks the book off with style. (Anyone who can cheerfully blame his aging dad for the death of wildlife in the Galapogos because the man misplaced his microbially “hot” Hanes briefs while skinny dipping in a cave after a nasty bout of Montezuma’s Revenge, well, that writer just has a way with words!) The joy of reading Out There isn’t limited to the great writing though. It’s a treasure trove of stories, depicting mostly Type-2 Fun, that you can pull out whenever you’re having a particularly rough day. You don’t need to commit to the entire book. Just have to crack it open for a quick story like you’re breaking off the corner or a chocolate bar. Before you know it, your gloomy mood will have vanished, and you might even be grateful you’re indoors that day!
#4 – IF I LIVE UNTIL MORNING
I purchased this memoir after listening to an interview with the author on Backpacker Radio (Episode #68). The bulk of the book follows her near-death experience after skiing the John Muir Trail in 1982 with her partner and surviving a catastrophic fall near Mt. Whitney. This tale about resilience and healing and strays from the typical outdoor memoir. Muenchrath spent decades keeping silent about this event, and continued to undertake mountaineering adventures in Himalayas after her body physically healed. But in the end, the mental trauma of the tragedy stuck with her, and penning this narrative was her opportunity to explore that cataclysmic event in a therapeutic way. For many readers, this memoir will force you to consider your own misadventures (or near misses) and how it made you personally grow as an outdoor adventurer. This book is ultimately a story of grace and hope, told in a vulnerable and honest way.
#5 – DEAD MOUNTAIN
Dead Mountain takes on the mystery of what happened to a group of experienced hikers who disappeared in the Ural Mountains in 1959. This winter hiking tragedy isn’t well-known to most Western adventurers, and it was super tempting to just cut to the chase and do an internet search for the outcome (like I admittedly did when I was completely enthralled in Eric Blehm’s book, The Last Season). However, the author does an admirable job of weaving together the missing trekkers’ diary entries, the formal investigation, and his own attempt to literally retrace their steps in person. So, if you’d like a better explanation to what happened to this adventurous group than the internet conspiracy theory that a Sasquatch or Yeti attacked them (yes, some people really do believe that account!), this book does a pretty good job at piecing the mystery together with a believable hypothesis.
#6 – BICYCLING THE OREGON TRAIL
This book follows my continuing obsession with the Oregon Trail and westward expansion during the the 19th century. A few years ago, I absolutely devoured the book Oregon Trail: A New American Journey, which chronicles Rinker Buck’s wagon-drawn journey along the 2,000-mile route in 2011. Since then, I’ve been on a bit of a tear – often obsessing about what it might be like to hike the Oregon Trail on my own. This new outdoor adventure comes from Don Weinall, an amateur cyclist from Louisiana who rode the entire route on his bicycle from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon. Like Buck’s book, Weinell tells the stories of many of the people who walk or rode this journey in the 1840s and 1850s while weaving it into his own 21st century adventure. The author rode consecutive segments of the Oregon Historic Trail each year until he completed the entire route, and took time to painstakingly visit many of the historical markers, graves, and sites during his five-year journey so he could present a variety of unique pioneer stories. Part travel journal and part history lesson, this book does and excellent job depicting some of the inevitable conflicts between Native Indians tribes and the White settlers who moved into (and through) their homeland. I hadn’t considered bikepacking the Oregon Trail until I read this book, and now it’s creeping to the top of my bucket list of upcoming adventure ideas.
NEED EVEN MORE MOTIVATION IN THE OFF-SEASON? CHeck out:
- My 2020 reading list: 5 Outstanding Outdoor Books for the Winter
- My 2019 reading list: 5 Awesome Books to Keep You Motivated in the Off-Season
- Or, why not binge-read last year’s Tahoe Rim Trail trail journal?