Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
Subscription Form

Get notified of the best News

Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
22K Followers
25K Likes
5K Followers
1K Followers
Mountain Life
Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
  • COVID-19

Could Lost be the New Found?

  • March 31, 2020
  • Ben Osborne
Total
1
Shares
1
0
0
0
0
0
Total
1
Shares
Share 1
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0

words:: Colin Field illustration:: Sarah King

“It was the happiest time of my life,” says Chris Larkin.

His answer is instant, unhesitant. The best part of his 65 years on earth happened, without doubt, 31 years ago. It lasted ten days. It was that time he lost absolutely everything in the Mackenzie Mountains.

The idea of getting away from it all lies at the root of exploration. It is, for most of us, a path to a particular kind of freedom—as it was for all explorers, whether searching for a new home, spiritual salvation or glory. Most outdoor pursuits claim some kind of ‘ultimate freedom,’ but what does that actually mean? Skiers might tell you it’s a bottomless powder turn, surfers will say it’s getting tubed, but Larkin’s take is different. He found what we all seek after dumping his boat on the infamously dangerous Mountain River in the Northwest Territories in June 1985.

His life spared, his sole possessions were now a life jacket, a sheath knife, a container with 20 matches, gaiters, rubber boots, and the clothes he wore.

This article is part of the Mountain Life Isolation Reading List

Introducing our Curated COVID-19 Isolation reading list. Editors from each of our publications have gone through and compiled a list of pieces from past issues of Mountain Life for you to enjoy, and we’re excited to share them with you. Sit back and relax, because we might be in this for the long haul. But most importantly, let’s not forget to do this together.
Check out the full list!

 

Larkin was on his way back to civilization after spending two winters alone in the wilderness. In autumn 1983 he’d loaded two canoes with gear and departed Fort Simpson on the Mackenzie River, travelling up the Keele River to a cabin where he spent the winter. In spring 1984, he headed further upstream, dragging, pushing and forcing one fully loaded canoe to the source of the Twitya River at Mountain Lake. An epic, and perhaps mule-headed feat in itself, Larkin then built himself a cabin and spent another winter in the bush. In March 1985 he began his descent of the Mountain River, intending to intersect the Mackenzie and paddle on to Fort Good Hope. This was a guy who knew his way around the wilderness.

But by June the river was raging with spring runoff, its sheer volume expressed in five-metre waves barrelling off the inside of canyon walls. These Class III rapids had no problem capsizing—as Larkin calls himself—the inexperienced paddler. With the frigid water threatening hypothermia, he was lucky to get ashore. His life spared, his sole possessions were now a life jacket, a sheath knife, a container with 20 matches, gaiters, rubber boots, and the clothes he wore. Everything else had been carried downstream or ripped from his pockets by the torrent.

“With emotion I think of all the important material possessions I have lost,” he writes in his unpublished book, A Far Cry. “But with a still more powerful feeling I know the land is offering me freedom; freedom from being possessed by my possessions. The river has taken them all, save a few clothes on my back. Hungry and happy I have never felt such elation, such perfect union.”

He was 110 kilometres from the Mackenzie River, from where it was another 100 to Fort Good Hope. But between him and a potential cold beer were unforgiving terrain, one of the widest rivers in Canada, and millions upon millions of hungry mosquitoes.

Over the next ten days, Larkin ate next to nothing—a dozen shrivelled cranberries from the previous fall; parts of a porcupine he stabbed in the head and roasted over a fire; some ants, and then, inevitably, mosquitoes. By day four he was chewing poplar bark. Then things got hazy.

Mountain Life Annual Could Lost be the New Found
Illustration :: Dave Barnes

“I can’t remember the sequence… but my memory of each individual circumstance is very vivid,” he says. “I do remember the noise of the river conjuring itself into this sort of barbershop singing, which was horrendous. I realized it was a lack of food and sleep so I just had to put up with it.”

After nine days hiking through mud, landslides and impenetrable bush, Larkin finally arrived at the Mackenzie which, at the Mountain River’s ingress, stretches three-kilometres wide. He could hear and see boats on the far side, but couldn’t get their attention. And it was pouring rain. It took him all night to start a fire which, with diminishing energy, he then had to lean over to keep going.

“I think it was a full 24 hours before a boat came,” he recalls. “Over that time, I wasn’t really asleep. Only drowsy. I suppose I’d given up. The real factor here is that the will to live has a direct correlation with energy levels. It’s a physical thing, a biological thing. If the body isn’t getting heat, you’re just naturally going to die. Starvation is not an uncomfortable way to go.”

A deep thinker, Larkin has pondered those ten days on the brink for decades.

“My philosophy is that we, as human beings, are a part of nature. The further away from technology and human creations you are, the more worthwhile the experience. The knife and matches were fairly primitive technology, so I spent ten days in pure nature. There was no other element of man involved, nothing interfering between existence and the basic elements. The fact that you’re so close to death in such circumstances makes for life lived at a much higher pitch.”

It’s that higher pitch that Larkin loved. “I’ve never done the wingsuit thing,” he says, “but the analogy might be that instead of [flying without a chute] for a couple minutes, you’re doing it for ten days. It’s ultimate freedom.”

While he admits forcing yourself into a survival situation would be foolish, he believes it was the ideal end to two years in the bush. “I still remember it with a lot of joy. I think it was the most worthwhile thing I ever did in my life.” —ML
Total
1
Shares
Share 1
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0
Ben Osborne

Previous Article
  • COVID-19

Bouvetøya: The Last Place on Earth

  • March 31, 2020
  • Ben Osborne
View Post
Next Article
  • COVID-19
  • The Great Outdoors

Forever Changed

  • April 1, 2020
  • Ben Osborne
View Post
You May Also Like
View Post
  • Leslie Anthony
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • Stay & Play
  • The Great Outdoors

Spring at Sun Peaks

  • Sarah Bulford
  • March 8, 2022
View Post
  • Leslie Anthony
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding

Chasing Dream Runs at Sun Peaks

  • Sarah Bulford
  • January 7, 2022
View Post
  • COVID-19

When a Few Left Turns Lead to a Right

  • Ben Osborne
  • April 1, 2020
View Post
  • COVID-19

Lake Of Bones

  • Ben Osborne
  • April 1, 2020
View Post
  • COVID-19
  • The Great Outdoors

Conscious Explorations at the Top of the World

  • Ben Osborne
  • April 1, 2020
View Post
  • COVID-19

Fatherhood in The Mountains: Examining Risk in the Context of Family

  • Ben Osborne
  • April 1, 2020
View Post
  • COVID-19
  • The Great Outdoors

Forever Changed

  • Ben Osborne
  • April 1, 2020
View Post
  • COVID-19

Bouvetøya: The Last Place on Earth

  • Ben Osborne
  • March 31, 2020

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Featured Posts
  • 1
    End of an Era: Another Double Chair Bites the Dust
    • March 28, 2023
  • Skiing at Hudson Bay Mountain in Smithers 2
    Where Eagles Dare
    • March 27, 2023
  • Mountain-Life-20th-showreel 3
    20 Years of ML
    • March 24, 2023
  • Mustang-Survival-WOMENS-HELIX-CCS 4
    Gear Shed: Our End-of-Winter Picks
    • March 23, 2023
  • natural-selection-Redbull 5
    Friday Flick: Natural Selection Tour Highlights
    • March 17, 2023
RECENT POSTS
  • Powder-Highway-BC-ski
    Powder Highway Revisited
    • March 21, 2023
  • AleTrailsSouthernInterior_Vernon_MikeGamble_LookoutTrail_BenHaggarPhoto
    Ale Trails: Southern Interior Part 1, Vernon + Shuswap
    • March 20, 2023
  • Elements-Outfitters-Filson-cabin
    Elements Outfitters Partners with SALTS to Protect Alberta’s Incredible Landscapes
    • March 16, 2023
Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
INSTAGRAM
mountainlifemedia
22K Followers
No one called me Feet Banks back in 1987. In those days, most people called me by my given name—except for my ski buddies, to whom I was known by the most badass moniker to ever schuss the slopes: Twinkle Toes.
We’re celebrating 20 Years of Mountain Life!
From The Gear Shed: Last Monday was the official start of spring, but we know there’s still some winter to be shredded. So ML staff and partners have picked the latest jackets, lanterns, bindings, mugs and drysuits for winter-spring.
Exploring the sights around beautiful Sutton, Quebec with ML creator @adv_bird ❄️🫶
Back on the road with three generations, dancing lifties, best-on-planet pizza and elusive-but-exquisite pow days.
Live It Up EP 24 is out now!
The Southern Interior region of BC holds an ecological cross-section of the province with alpine meadows, arid Douglas fir grasslands, damp cedar and hemlock forests of the Columbia Mountains and the warm expanse of Shuswap Lake.
Do Not Disturb mode activated ✅ #mountainlifer
Conceived by superhuman snowboarder @travisrice, the @naturalselection Tour highlights earth’s premier riders, from big-mountain mavens to Olympians, all competing on the most stoketastic—and unpredictable—terrain known to humankind.
Built upon a shared desire to enjoy, respect, and advocate for Alberta’s incredible landscapes, it was a natural fit for @elementsoutfitters to work with a local conservation organization @saltslandtrust to highlight the province’s rugged beauty and outdoor apparel to match.
Follow

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

No one called me Feet Banks back in 1987. In those days, most people called me by my given name—except for my ski buddies, to whom I was known by the most badass moniker to ever schuss the slopes: Twinkle Toes.
We’re celebrating 20 Years of Mountain Life!
From The Gear Shed: Last Monday was the official start of spring, but we know there’s still some winter to be shredded. So ML staff and partners have picked the latest jackets, lanterns, bindings, mugs and drysuits for winter-spring.
Exploring the sights around beautiful Sutton, Quebec with ML creator @adv_bird ❄️🫶
Back on the road with three generations, dancing lifties, best-on-planet pizza and elusive-but-exquisite pow days.
Live It Up EP 24 is out now!
Mountain Life
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Advertising

Input your search keywords and press Enter.