Winter: Notes from Montana

I read this book during my first winter in Colorado which, having moved here from Arizona, has also been my first real winter ever. "Winter covers some things and reveals others" (p. 162), Rick Bass observes in his journal, which recounts the first winter he spent with his artist girlfriend, Elizabeth Hughes, without electricity, phones, or paved roads in Yaak Valley, Montana. In his 162-page "journal of winter, a journal of peace" (p. 28), Bass also discovers that winter has the power to transform. After "floundering for thirty years trying to figure this out, trying to get along in cities, trying to move fast," Bass encounters the "deep, dark woods," and the "quietness, a slowness" of winter (p. 161), which causes a change of seasons in his own heart.Except for a only handful of neighbors, and the "no glitter, no makeup" (p. 77) regulars at the Dirty Shame tavern, Bass shares his "wild, magical valley" (p. 3) with grizzly bears, grouse, moose, mule deer, elk, porcupines, ducks, geese, owls, rabbits, mountain lions, bobcats, black bears, coyotes, gray wolves, badgers, martens, fishers, wolverines, lots of snow, and silence. "We had never felt such magic" (p. 5), Bass writes. "This valley shakes with mystery, with beauty, with secrets" (p. 61).WINTER is to Rick Bass what DESERT SOLITAIRE is to Ed Abbey. Drawn from journals, both books address the important question of why wilderness is essential to man.G. Merritt

Winter (notes from Montana) takes place in the Yaak River Valley of Montana in the late 1980's. Rick Bass's riveting journal transports the reader to this remote area and helps to involve the reader in his transformation from dependence upon civilization to the ability to appreciate solitude. The sporadic entries enable the reader to see the changes that are taking place in the author more readily than he sees them. "I suppose I was pretending that I had always realized what I needed-deep, dark woods and quietness, a slowness-and that I hadn't been floundering for thirty years trying to figure this out, trying to get along in the cities, trying to move fast. He was right, though. I have changed. I can take apart a generator and put it back together. I can file a saw. My heart has changed too. I'm in less of a hurry." (p. 161). Bass finally begins to see that by learning to depend on nature and himself, he is learning that what we think we need is not always the best for us. This book is an excellent piece to help readers appreciate the life of convenience but also envy the simpler life Bass is living in Yaak.

In Rick Bass' Winter: Notes From Montana, Bass describes what it is like to truly experience the winter season. For one who has never seen snow or experienced cold, Bass puts his thoughts into words better than a true northerner ever could. He describes his story perfectly throughout this book and doesn't hold any of his thoughts back. We often wonder, "Will he have enough wood?" or "Will he make it through the winter?" The book is true honesty and represents what someone could experience when living through winter for the first time. I don't typically read these kinds of books, but I found this one very enjoyable, entertaining, and very hard to put down. Bass's journal like writing gives us an almost day by day detail of what he goes through getting ready for a place where the winter is one of the harshest around. In the end Bass can not leave this place where he has spent much blood and sweat. Overall I think this book is a must read for anyone who likes outdoor settings, and a good true story. Winter is something that some of us never experience, but Bass let's you know exactly what everyone has been raving about.

Rick Bass is a gifted author with an amazing ability to make simple pleasures (like watching the snow fall) sound irresistible to even the most restless souls. "Winter" is effortlessly my favorite book of all time; a masterpiece of time and solitude. Often while reading the book, I almost want to sell everything and go off to Montana, cut wood, take great adventurous hikes and happily watch the snow fall for an entire day. We're missing the point of life - Rick Bass has captured it in this important book. Anyone who enjoyed Bryson's "A Walk In The Woods" should not miss this superior classic.

Rick Bass transports the reader to a remote valley in Montana and convincingly portrays his love and affection for all things wild and natural. This testament to the environment never preaches yet may be one of the most powerful arguments to preserve that which is still wild. It calms the mind and stirs the spirit.