{"id":340,"date":"2016-04-15T15:05:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T15:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iceh.net\/?p=340"},"modified":"2016-04-15T15:11:51","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T15:11:51","slug":"340","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/?p=340","title":{"rendered":"Windy Arm Storm 1997"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Download<\/a><\/div>

Dyea to Dawson 1997 \u2013 Windy Arm Storm<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fred O\u2019Brien<\/p>\n

In\u00a0 June of 1997 Karl Dittmar and I took part in the Dyea (near Skagway, Alaska) to Dawson, Yukon International Centennial Race to the Klondike. The race was limited to 50 teams of two, and was a re-enactment of the great gold-rush stampede of 1897-98.\u00a0 We had a 56 Kl. hike over the Chilkoot trail and a 1000 Kl. canoe trip from Bennet Lake, through several lakes and down the mighty Yukon river to Dawson City.\u00a0\u00a0 We each\u00a0 had to carry a minimum load of 22.5 Kilograms (50 lbs), which included listed compulsory items such as a gold pan, 12 inch diameter cast iron frying pan (heavy!), hatchet, shovel, flour, beans and dried fruit – all to make it a realistic commemoration of the stampede.<\/p>\n

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The canoeing was an unexpected adventure.\u00a0 While sails were not allowed I had occasion to use a golfing umbrella on Bennet Lake; and more importantly, on Windy Arm (another large lake) during a storm of biblical proportions!\u00a0 One team sank in the storm, had to be rescued and nearly were lost, suffering hypothermia.\u00a0 Having lost most of their gear and not in a position to continue, they scratched from the race.\u00a0 All the other competitors, except Karl and I, stayed ashore until the storm abated!\u00a0 We were traveling close to shore, Karl in the rear and I up front.\u00a0 With the wind picking up I opened the umbrella and we started to pick up good speed.\u00a0 I was happy to display the umbrella to all those\u00a0 stampeders on shore, gesturing to them, bravado style, that we would see them in Dawson!!\u00a0 Being close to shore I felt that the breaking waves in the shallows were treacherous and I suggested to Karl that we move out a little farther into the lake.\u00a0 To my surprise, Karl turned to cross the lake, using his paddle as a rudder.\u00a0 The storm increased in ferocity.\u00a0 The sky darkened and, with the increased wind speed and gusts, the umbrella was blown inside-out some seven times.\u00a0 With the sudden pulls and thrusts things got very unsteady in the canoe and I started to fear for Karl and for the circumstances of my own family in the event of a looming disaster.\u00a0 I managed to brace myself, with my two knees against the gunnels, and to hold the stem of the umbrella in my left hand and the sky-pointing rib in my right hand so as to continue catching the wind and remaining relatively steady.<\/p>\n

\"Umbrella<\/a><\/p>\n

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The waves had increased up to some seven feet in height, according to Karl.\u00a0 We were trying to reach the narrows to Tagish River and had to cut across the wind and were buffeted by gusts and waves on the right side of the canoe.\u00a0 Every time we got a blast of wind and wave I called out (not too loud) \u201cJesus\u201d in\u00a0 prayer.\u00a0 I recalled St. Therese of Lisieux\u2019s reflection on the Bible story of Jesus asleep in the boat during the storm where she indicated that she would not wake him.\u00a0 I resolved to take her advice and prayed for Karl, myself, our families; and put my trust in God.\u00a0 The wind was so powerful that we were shooting across the lake and over the waves at great speed.\u00a0 Without the umbrella, I am sure, we would have sunk in the storm!\u00a0\u00a0 Karl was using the paddle as a rudder and I was constricting the shape of the umbrella to hold it intact, bag shaped, and capturing the wind.\u00a0 The sky was ominously dark, the far shore seemed to be receding and the journey seemed to take an eternity.\u00a0 Now and again I thought:\u00a0 how far could we swim if we went down?\u00a0 how cold is the water?<\/em>\u00a0 The situation was so serious, I thought, that, come what may, even though my knees and arms were rigid and tired, I would not flag in my efforts and determination.\u00a0 I believe I was not afraid for myself.\u00a0\u00a0 Karl had nerves of steel in the rear of the canoe and, with his steady hand, solid sense of humour in the face of challenge, and\u00a0 aided by the prayers of our Maryhouse supporters in Whitehorse, we did not take a drop of water in the course of the crossing!! On arrival at the other side the storm was still at its height and we had to beach the canoe with the lashing waves and gusting windblasts hitting us from the right.\u00a0 As we approached the shore I leapt from the canoe, was sideswiped by it in the shallow water and fell.\u00a0 The canoe was swamped and Karl and I were totally immersed in the freezing water.\u00a0 We struggled with the canoe and, managed to drag everything ashore.\u00a0 We were famished and proceeded to transfer canoe, tent and gear out of the wind-swept open area and around the corner of the sheltered narrows.\u00a0 We gathered firewood, found dry matches and tinder and lit a blazing fire.\u00a0 We pitched tent, stripped out of our wet clothes and hung clothing and gear to dry on some beach-lain deadwood.\u00a0 Our sleeping bags were dry on the inside and we bedded down for the night.\u00a0\u00a0 It was the most incredible adventure I had ever experienced.\u00a0 Praise the Lord for delivering us safely from so great a storm!<\/p>\n

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Dyea to Dawson 1997 \u2013 Windy Arm Storm Fred O\u2019Brien In\u00a0 June of 1997 Karl Dittmar and I took part in the Dyea (near Skagway, Alaska) to Dawson, Yukon International Centennial Race to the Klondike. The race was limited to 50 teams of two, and was a re-enactment of the great gold-rush stampede of 1897-98.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":345,"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions\/345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.iceh.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}