Call of the American Wild by Guy Grieve

Author:Guy Grieve
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse
Published: 2015-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

1 Contrary to what we are used to in more temperate zones, where we see snow as a sign of extreme cold, in Alaska when it is snowing it means the weather is warm. Snow comes during periods of depression, when low lying clouds act as insulation. In high pressure, what little warmth there is disappears fast into the cold, clear sky.

23

TRACKS, TREES AND ANIMAL TANKS

It was early November, the days were dark and my food supply was getting leaner. The snow was four feet deep and still falling, and I was working very hard to keep the stove going around the clock. It was now impossible to walk without snowshoes, so I set out one morning to try them out. I strapped them on over my mukluks, and strode out of my cabin with big, comical steps down to the latrine hole. I had covered it with a tarpaulin so that it didn’t fill with snow, and stared at it for a long time, trying to figure out what adjustments it needed to make it comfortable in this new, hostile world. Putting the problem to one side, I decided to go in search of new wood for burning, and snowshoed off towards the lake. I enjoyed walking easily on the surface of the fresh snow, now and then seeing deep holes where I had struggled to walk just the day before. The snowshoes felt like a magic carpet, taking me anywhere across frozen white clouds. Like a child with new shoes I stared down at them, lost in the old-fashioned sight of the bright blue mukluks inside the creaking birch snowshoes moving across the dry, powdery snow. It reminded me of a time when we bought Oscar some new shoes with lights that flashed each time he put his foot down–he was so entranced that we had to remind him to look ahead while he ran, fearing he might trip or run into something. I thought of his delicate blonde head, his neatly arranged nose and ears and big, green eyes. Tears welled up in my eyes, straining to fall but then subsiding as if afraid of freezing. I was missing my family more than ever, but couldn’t afford to give full vent to my emotions, which given the chance would rise up and overwhelm me.

I walked on until I reached the steep, snow-covered bank on the other side of the lake, where I experienced for the first time the unique sensation of falling uphill. I placed one snowshoe on the incline ahead, and then, as I lifted the other leg, it slid back down the hill, creating a small avalanche which resulted in me falling flat on my face in the snowy bank. I lay there for a moment before pushing my hands into the snow to lift myself up, only to find my arms sunk up to the armpits, and I was left lying like a stranded whale. Finally I rolled on to my back and used gravity to get myself upright, brushing all the snow off my body before it began to melt.

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