41 Below

A VERY cold day in Edmonton, Alberta. All week it had been nudging minus 40. It's hard to even describe that level of cold.

Go now and stick your hand in the freezer for as long as you can. Now take another 20 degrees off...

Here's my question: Edmonton, with its beautiful river valley parklands is quite lovely in spring and autumn, and summer (whilst brief) is pleasant enough. But when the first Europeans settled here in eighteenth century, some of them must have survived the winter. Why would you stay for another one?