Leaning on the Wind : Under the Spell of the Great Chinook

Created by the crashing together of tectonic plates, worn down by the passage of ice and time and shaped by hot, dry chinook winds, the foothills of the Rocky Mountains are a special place.

In composing his ode to the land he loves, best-selling author and mountain man Sid Marty skilfully weaves together First Nations legends with the harrowing tales of miners, early homesteaders and his own family's experiences living in an old ranch headquarters.

The result is a passionate and vivid book: dense with information, lyrical in its appreciation of the land and the people who have inhabited it, but also cut by icy irony and sardonic wit.

As evocative today as when it was first published in 1995, this new edition of the best-selling western classic may just be one of the best books ever written about Alberta for the way Marty captures the unique character of the land that lies between the mountains and the prairies.