When Mike told us the story of the Mayo guy who died "from the heat", we paid a lot of attention. Like always, like every time someone here tries to give you useful information but they do it apparently just telling stories.
They use to do so, Canadians, especially in the Yukon. They will never tell you: pay attention, do this, do that. They prefer to keep an eye on you, trying to figure out if you are either a poor sap, or a fanatic or simply someone willing to learn, and in this way deserving to be rescued. Rescued from yourself, in most cases.
In order to get instructions and pieces of advice, up here north, better keep listening.
Even from the simplest story, even from the most repeated one in the entertainment storytelling, there is something you can learn. And in the Yukon, it's better not to learn from your mistakes, because they can cost you very very much...
They use to do so, Canadians, especially in the Yukon. They will never tell you: pay attention, do this, do that. They prefer to keep an eye on you, trying to figure out if you are either a poor sap, or a fanatic or simply someone willing to learn, and in this way deserving to be rescued. Rescued from yourself, in most cases.
In order to get instructions and pieces of advice, up here north, better keep listening.
Even from the simplest story, even from the most repeated one in the entertainment storytelling, there is something you can learn. And in the Yukon, it's better not to learn from your mistakes, because they can cost you very very much...
The guy we had heard of from Mike was a real yukoner. Grown up in Mayo, the half-thousand-resident village on the Stewart River around 60 km downhill from Keno City, the young man made his living thanks to the typical jobs of hard labour in the Yukon: woodcutting, mining and tree planting.
The accident happened at the end of a work day, while the young man and his crew were waiting for the helicopter to pick them up. The helicopter would do several flights, loading tools and men in stages. The young man, being one of the experts, had stayed behind. When the pilot came back, the boy was laying on the ground. Dead. Frozen. "He must not have realized he was heated up, he had worked too hard and felt warm, or maybe the temperature rose for some time - that's Mike's explanation - but here up you have to pay attention both to the outside temperature and to your body". He had felt warm, he opened his jacket, he got a frostbite and died. Even if so young and strong, even if so experienced.
The accident happened at the end of a work day, while the young man and his crew were waiting for the helicopter to pick them up. The helicopter would do several flights, loading tools and men in stages. The young man, being one of the experts, had stayed behind. When the pilot came back, the boy was laying on the ground. Dead. Frozen. "He must not have realized he was heated up, he had worked too hard and felt warm, or maybe the temperature rose for some time - that's Mike's explanation - but here up you have to pay attention both to the outside temperature and to your body". He had felt warm, he opened his jacket, he got a frostbite and died. Even if so young and strong, even if so experienced.
We had been very careful in preparing the walk to the Sign Post, where we planned to do some shooting from above. We thought we had been careful. Using a snow shovel as a sledge, Antonio loaded all the electronics in order to avoid weight on the back. And the temperature, -14°C, seemed to be the right one for an hour walk up the hill. So, we took off. Slowly.
But we didn't get our goal. Maybe because of a sudden rise in temperature, maybe because we didn't feel our bodies heating up from walking, when we had almost reached the spot where we wanted to start our shooting, we suddenly felt all wet and sweated. On top of that, behind the curve a cold wind had started to blow. That's what the Weather Forecasts call the windchill, a phenomenon able of lowering temperature perception by 20 degrees.
The decision was immediate. "You'll learn to give up", they say here. "Let's go back, now", we said, and we thought of the young man from Mayo. We also felt a bit like dummies. Because, though we were prepared for the cold, we were caught by surprise by the heat.
The decision was immediate. "You'll learn to give up", they say here. "Let's go back, now", we said, and we thought of the young man from Mayo. We also felt a bit like dummies. Because, though we were prepared for the cold, we were caught by surprise by the heat.