To Build a Fire (London)
Short Summary
Yukon Territory, presumably the 1890s. During extreme winter conditions, a man turned off the main Yukon trail to travel to a mining camp on Henderson Creek.
Despite temperatures dropping below -75°F, the man continued his journey, accompanied only by a native wolf dog. After getting his feet wet in a hidden spring, he attempted to build a fire but failed when snow from tree branches extinguished it. His fingers becoming increasingly numb, he made a second desperate attempt to start another fire.
It was his last moment of fear. When he had recovered his breath and his control, he sat and thought about meeting death with dignity. However, the idea did not come to him in exactly this manner.
After failing to kill the dog to warm his hands in its carcass, the man accepted his fate. He imagined the boys finding his frozen body the next day, and acknowledged that the old-timer at Sulphur Creek had been right about not traveling alone in such cold. The man drifted into a peaceful sleep and froze to death, while the dog ran off to find shelter at the camp.
Detailed Summary
Division of the summary into chapters is conditional.
The Journey Begins in Extreme Cold
On a cold morning in the Yukon, a man turned off the main trail to travel east through a pine forest. The temperature was extremely low, with no sun in the sky. He was heading to a camp on Henderson Creek, where his companions were waiting. The journey would take him several hours, and he expected to arrive by six o'clock that evening.
The trouble with him was that he was not able to imagine. He was quick and ready in the things of life, but only in the things, and not in their meanings. Fifty degrees below zero meant 80 degrees of frost.
The man was accompanied by a wolf dog, who seemed more aware of the dangerous cold than its human companion. The temperature was actually seventy-five degrees below zero, creating 107 degrees of frost.
The dog did not know anything about temperatures... But the animal sensed the danger. Its fear made it question eagerly every movement of the man as if expecting him to go into camp or seek shelter somewhere.
First Fire and Growing Danger
During his journey, the man successfully avoided several hidden pools of water under the snow. However, at one point, he broke through the ice and got his feet wet. Knowing the danger of wet feet in such extreme cold, he stopped to build a fire. The man remembered the advice of an old-timer at Sulphur Creek about the dangers of traveling alone in such weather.
When it is 75 below zero, a man must not fail in his first attempt to build a fire. This is especially true if his feet are wet. If his feet are dry, and he fails, he can run along the trail for half a mile.
The man carefully built his fire under a spruce tree, but this proved to be a fatal mistake. The heat from the fire caused snow to fall from the branches above, extinguishing the flame completely. His fingers were already numb from the cold, making it extremely difficult to gather materials for another fire.
Desperate Attempts for Survival
As his situation became more desperate, the man remembered a story about killing an animal and sheltering inside its carcass for warmth. In his panic, he tried to catch the dog to kill it, but his frozen hands couldn't grasp his knife or hold the animal.
He remembered the story of the man, caught in a storm, who killed an animal and sheltered himself inside the dead body and thus was saved. He would kill the dog and bury his hands in the warm body.
After failing to catch the dog, the man attempted to build another fire. His frozen fingers fumbled with the matches, and he eventually managed to light the whole pack at once. However, in his desperation to hold the flame to the kindling, he dropped the matches in the snow, losing his last chance for fire.
The old man on Sulphur Creek was right... After 50 below zero, a man should travel with a companion. He beat his hands, but failed to produce any feeling in them. Suddenly he bared both hands, removing the mittens.
The Final Moments
Panic set in as the man realized the gravity of his situation. He began running along the trail, hoping to reach the camp and his companions, but his frozen feet made it impossible to continue for long. Eventually, exhausted and accepting his fate, he stopped running and sat down in the snow.
As the cold overtook him, the man grew drowsy and began to experience peaceful thoughts about freezing to death. He imagined the boys finding his body the next day and even had an out-of-body experience where he saw himself lying frozen in the snow. In his final moments, he acknowledged that the old-timer at Sulphur Creek had been right about the dangers of traveling alone.
The man drifted into what seemed like the most comfortable sleep he had ever known. The dog remained by his side, watching and waiting. As darkness fell and no fire appeared, the dog grew increasingly anxious.
Never in the dog's experience had it known a man to sit like that in the snow and make no fire... Later, the dog howled loudly. And still later it moved close to the man and caught the smell of death.
After detecting the scent of death, the dog backed away from the man's body. It waited a while longer, continuing to howl under the bright, cold stars. Finally, understanding that its companion was gone, the dog turned and ran toward the camp where it knew there would be other food providers and fire makers.