High Country

A wrangler for some 40 years Willard Wyman landed two Spur Awards for High Country as Best Novel of the West and Best First Novel. During the Great Depression young Ty Hardin is sent from his family's failing Montana ranch to learn from the last of the great packers Fenton Pardee a legend in the Montana Rockies.High Country follows Ty through his packing apprenticeship and into World War II. Wounded and shipped home Ty recovers by packing into the Montana mountains he loves even as he watches human traffic through them take its ecological toll.After his mentor dies Ty leaves Montana for the Sierra Nevada--the highest country of all--where he becomes a legend in his own right.