** spoiler alert ** 
 Reading this book at this date in its history, I didn't see this ending coming. I personally wouldn't read the rest because I think any sequel would spoil it, explaining away what happens here -- the final hallucination at an advanced stage of hypothermia when he's sledding away with his frozen baby into death. Seems like a sequel, much less a series of sequels, could only cheapen this. But a writer's gotta eat...