It drove the snow-dust into the men's smarting faces and froze their breath on their furs.

Their hands stiffened on the sledge-traces and their feet got numb.

The cold got worse when snow began to fall and when they camped one night Thirlwell noted that they had used more food than he thought.

The transport of provisions is perhaps the main difficulty of a winter journey in the bush, for men who brave the arctic cold must be generously fed.

Thirlwell, however, expected to reach the mine before their stores ran out, and set off at daybreak next morning in heavy, driving snow.
At dusk he camped in a clump of dry willows by a river.