date stamped:
Dec 07,2018 3:38 p.m.************************************************************************************
Fred "Skip" Pessl wrote in XVII PREFACE of his book "Barren Grounds":
The weather grew harsh. Freezing temperatures, wind-driven snow, dwindling food supplies, and deteriorating equipment pushed us hard to travel faster and more efficiently, and
ultimately we made a fatal mistake. We approached Majorie Lake with caution, without an onshore look. Standing up in our canoes as we floated toward the rapids, we saw a modest current sweeping toward the right-hand bend and drove our canoes into that initial current V.
The rest is wilderness canoeing history. ..."
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In his epilogue (page 173), Pessl writes: "Our journey was delayed and tragically interrupted because we did not differentiate between what worked on the Albany River what would not work in the late season on the Dubawnt
The deteriorating weather exacerbated our concerns about our dwindling food supply, threatening frostbite and unknown river conditions, and it changed our modus operandi from cautious land-based scouting of rapids to a floating assessment as we were sucked into the headwater Vs of each successive rapid. It worked for several days and many rapids, except for one."
Alan Gage has a compelling argument that finds support in the Pessl excerpts.