I'm originally from Northern Alberta, whence your famed "Alberta Clippers" - we had extreme snow and extreme winds, and extreme cold. To answer Charlie's question from earlier, all northern Canadians are trained in avoidance and survival from the first day of elementary school - we learned what to do with hypothermia cases almost before we learned the times tables. It's part of the fall curriculum of all schools. We also learned how to survive if you do end up stranded for whatever reason - it's easier in the North where there's accumulated snow, because you can dig yourself into it. On the plains where the wind whips most of it away, it's much harder to survive exposure.
I recall years when at this time of November, we had about 5 feet of snow and it was 40 below with a howling wind that made it feel like -60. Gardening in Zone 2 ends in August or early September, and we always had tomato plants hanging in the basement to ripen the crop. I know my family never went anywhere without the full survival kit in the trunk - snowshoes, sturdy tow rope, flares, road cones, thermal blankets, full car repair tools, sterno stove, chocolate, and radio beacon (this in the days before cel phones).
Bleh - this whole discussion is making me cold!
Good thing I live in a no-snow zone now, even though it did hail like all fury yesterday.
... And found a blog that quoted the passage from Deliverance by James Dickey. Is that it? It sounds like your kind of a novel. 
Where I live, it's mostly 
I mean if it has to be cold then it should be fun. I hope we get some snow really soon because I have tons of ideas for things to build.