Far North

Set in Canada, American author Will Hobbs’s young-adult novel Far North (1996) follows Gabe Rogers, who lives with his grandparents in Austin, Texas. When Gabe tells his father that he wants to live with him in Canada, his father tells him he may on two conditions. First, Gabe must travel up north to experience the severe cold of the Northwest Territories for one year. Second, he must attend boarding school. While flying through Canada with his boarding school roommate, Raymond Providence, their floatplane engine stalls, stranding the two boys, the pilot, and Raymond’s great-uncle deep in the northern wild. With the harsh winter weather fast approaching, Gabe and Raymond must depend on one another to survive the unforgiving landscape, brutal weather, and wild animals of Deadmen Valley. Horn Book called Far North, “a thrill-a-minute account of struggle against seemingly impossible odds” and Publishers Weekly described it as a “fast-moving tale…delivers breathless action.”

Plot Summary

Narrated in the first-person perspective by 15-year-old Gabe Rogers, the story begins in Austin, Texas. Gabe lives with his grandparents in Austin, but desperately wants to live with his oilman father in Northern Canada. Gabe’s father agrees that he can stay in Canada if Gabe spends one year in the Northwest Territories, where he can get used to the harsh winter conditions and attend Yellowknife boarding school. When Gabe arrives in Canada, he meets his new school roommate, 15-year-old Raymond Providence, an Indigenous American of the Dene tribe. They get along okay, but Raymond spends most of his time with other Dene tribe members. Gabe feels like Raymond is struggling in school, so he helps him, and they bond over playing hockey together. One day, Gabe’s father sets up a flight for Gabe to explore the Northwest Territories. Gabe meets up with a bush pilot named Clint who says he is taking a couple Dene tribe members back to Nahanni Butte. Gabe realizes that one of the Dene members is Raymond, who decided to quit school, and Raymond’s great uncle who was in the hospital.

During their flight, Clint makes an impromptu stop at Virginia Falls so the boys can see the beautiful view of Deadmen Valley. While touching down on the river about 100 feet from the dock, the Cessna floatplane engines stall out and die. Clint radios for help as the plane drifts toward a waterfall, but the signal does not go through. Clint ties the plane to a spruce tree, but the tree snaps off at the roots, sending the plane full of their ammo supply down the waterfall. Clint falls to his death as well, leaving Gabe, Raymond, and Johnny with only four rounds of ammo. Gabe and Raymond rely on Johnny Raven to teach them important survival skills. However, time is running out, as a harsh subarctic winter that locals call “The Hammer” is fast approaching.

Johnny teaches Gabe and Raymond how to cut the branches into rods so that they can make a brush-teepee. This provides shelter for the three as the winter weather worsens. Later, Johnny reluctantly agrees to build oars for a makeshift log-raft the boys plan to sail down the Nahanni River back to Raymond’s house. This is unsuccessful, however, because there is too much ice on the river.

When Johnny recognizes where they are, he begins leading the boys in a definitive direction. Gabe and Raymond cannot understand Johnny very well and assume he is taking them to witness the Northern Lights. Johnny leads the boys to an abandoned cabin he remembers from the past. They use the cabin as shelter from the escalating winter conditions and threatening wild animals. Running low on meat, they go walking in the woods in search of food. Johnny spots a beaver dam and discovers five beavers living inside. He uses his trapping skills to catch the beavers, which provide food for them from December to January. Johnny does an ancient raven dance in front of Raymond and gives his great-nephew the Raven family medicine-kit for good luck.

One day, Johnny leaves the cabin to hunt a moose. Gabe and Raymond hear a gunshot in the distance, assuming it to be Johnny shooting a wild animal. When Johnny doesn’t return by sundown, as usual, the boys go looking for him. After a while, the boys find Johnny frozen to death in the forest. Without Johnny’s survival knowledge, the boys face even graver danger. Their food supply is dwindling, and Raymond goes out to hunt a moose. He succeeds and drags the meat back to the cabin, where he and Gabe tie the food in a hammock and raise it to the ceiling so wild animals can’t reach it. However, wolverines and a grizzly bear with icicles protruding from its back steal the meat. The boys’ winter food supply is decreased significantly. They decide to put the rest of the supply up high in a tree, but the winter bear finds them. They escape danger by climbing up the tree with their meat. However, both Raymond and Gabe are injured as they jump down from the tree.

The boys decide to try to go down the icy Nahanni River to Nahanni Butte after their meat supply has been depleted and they both suffer injuries. Raymond tells Gabe to leave him behind and to come back for him later, but Gabe refuses. Gabe says that they must either live or die together. Gabe pulls on the toboggan filled with their supplies and the injured Raymond for days. They only stop at night when they build fire and shelter and eat what little food they have left.

As Gabe continues to pull Raymond on the toboggan, the boys eventually spot a smokestack in the distance. The smoke comes from the stovepipes of nearby villagers. A dog spots them and then people realize that Gabe and Raymond have survived. The villagers peer down in silent disbelief before sending a rescue unit. Gabe and Raymond are brought into town, where they receive medical attention. After the boys recover, they hold a potlatch in Nahanni Butte for Johnny Raven. Raymond makes a speech about how Johnny helped them survive, and the village feasts.