About the Book

Born in 1920, June Mickle grew up among the foothills of the Rocky Mountains with her mother and her stepfather, Tip Johnson, a renowned cowboy and horse trainer. As the only child of a single mother, June’s early years were marked by loneliness but also by remarkable family ties and an uncanny ability to live in harmony with both ranching and mountain environments. She grew into a strongly determined woman capable of meeting the challenges of being an artist, guide, outfitter, businesswoman, wife and parent, and one of the more important, even legendary figures in the development of backcountry adventure in the Rockies.

June Mickle: One Woman’s Life in the Foothills and Mountains of Western Canada is the inspiring memoir of an unconventional life fully lived. It is the story of people coping with family struggles, living among the splendour of a mountain landscape, and carving out an existence that held both tremendous hardships and enduring rewards.