Nick Griffiths is a former British Royal Marine commando, a tough guy. He was also a former participant in the incredibly gruelling Yukon Ultra marathon in 2018 where he suffered frostbite that resulted in the amputation of three toes. The footrace takes place in the dead of an Arctic winter through the wilderness, and that year offered distances of 48, 160, and 690km.
Also in the Yukon is the tradition of the “sourtoe cocktail”which is supposed to have originated with a long-ago booze smuggler- who preserved his own frozen and amputated toe in whiskey. It was later discovered, so the story goes, many decades later in a remote cabin. From there it became a dare to have a drink with the mummified toe in it at the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City
A mummified toe is placed in a glass of whiskey which people then drink, ensuring that the toe touches their lips but never swallowing it. Success results in a certificate (shown) indicating membership in the sourtoe cocktail club (Philippe Morin-CBC)
Griffiths offered his amputated toes to the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City where the toe-drink tradition is held with the proviso. “you can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch the toe”.
Griffiths mailed his toes from the UK to the bar in Dawson City. (Downtown Hotel)
The hotel usually has a couple of spare toes on hand as patrons have been known to swallow a toe, usually by accident, even though there is a $500 charge for doing so, and a toe was stolen once as well.
Inside the envelope a small container with the toes, and a handwritten note (Downtown Hotel)
Suitable toes are hard to come by, and a big toe is always a prize. So the bar was very pleased to get Griffith’s big toe.
He travelled from Britain, back to the Yukon this week to be re-united with his now mummified toe, and be the first to partake of the sourtoe cocktail with the new addition, and the first to join the sourtoe cocktail club with his own toe.
Nick Griffiths comes face to toe with his former digit along with toe captain Terry Lee at the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City this week (Downtown Hotel)
So far over 90,000 people have taken the challenge since the 1970’s and joined the “sourtoe cocktail club”.
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