A Pelly Crossing woman narrowly avoided freezing to death Tuesday after being found outside at -36 C.
RCMP received the call at 3:45 a.m., said Cpl. Joshua Wiese, the Pelly Crossing detachment commander.
“A resident was woken up to a bit of a disturbance, went outside and found a mid-30s lady intoxicated and suffering from hypothermia in the snow. She had tried to negotiate a fence, fell and didn’t get back up again. Alcohol is believed to have played heavily into what had happened.”
Wiese does not know how long she was outside, he said.
“Given the temperature it wouldn’t take long to get hypothermia.”
RCMP came to the woman and she was taken to the health clinic, where she was treated for severe hypothermia, said Wiese.
She was medevaced to Whitehorse, where she is being treated for serious injuries but her condition is stable.
A hospital spokesperson said Friday that the woman has suffered frostbite on both feet and the tip of her nose, and will likely remain in hospital for most of the next week.
Wiese is asking the public to “look out for their friends and family. If they’re too intoxicated, don’t let them go home, call someone for help or walk with them wherever they need to get to, especially in this weather.”
He also asks the public to “try to help people through the disease of addiction. In the state she was in, she probably didn’t know how cold it was or anything else like that. We don’t suspect that any crime has taken place, it’s just terrible circumstances.”
Whitehorse has seen the death of two men found lying in the snow in the last month.
Pelly Crossing man Robin Sam, 33, was found dead on Jan. 13 near the pedestrian trail on Two Mile Hill.
Dylan Alexis, 24, of Whitehorse died this past weekend after being found in a snowbank near McLean Lake road.
The bodies of both men have been sent Outside for autopsies, and no cause of death has been confirmed.