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Twice in a three-year span, Yukoner George Maratos saw a romantic relationship dissolve just as winter came to an end.

Both his girlfriends, like thousands of other women who have come to the Yukon since 1898, had only intended to stay for a short time. And once the grip of winter was lifted, they laid plans to return to what Yukoners openly call the “Outside.”

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At the first opportunity, they part company

“They come north to be on an adventure of sorts … and the calling of the next adventure calling lead to the end of the relationship,” he said. “I’d like to think that’s what the case was.”

As a consolation, though, in both cases Mr. Maratos was far from alone.

Since the age of sternwheelers and gold panners, for Yukoners the official end of winter is the Spring Breakup; the violent and closely watched shattering of ice along the Yukon River. But to those in the know, the term “spring breakup” also denotes another age-old seasonal phenomenon: The sudden springtime mass-separation of an unlikely number of Yukon couples.