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Alex Van Bibber was probably the toughest man in Canada.

He was born under a spruce tree and he went to school at age 13 by piloting a log raft down the Yukon River.

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At the age of 82, he dislocated his arm after rolling his ATV, and hiked three miles to catch a ride to the hospital. At 93, he walked five miles through thick snow after his snowmobile broke down.

One time, already well into old age, the veteran trapper was demonstrating a powerful new steel trap to a classroom of his peers when it suddenly slammed shut on his wrist, shattering his watch and sending pain shooting up his arm.

Without blinking or missing a beat, the trapper turned back to the stunned class and said “Now what are you going to do? You’re caught in your own trap. You have to get out because you can’t go home because your wife will laugh at you.”

“He comes from a generation the likes of which we’re likely never going to see again,” said friend Harvey Jessup.