You might want to look at the setting in terms of being an actual character..... you are correct in that the story is set in the Yukon, which is wild and unsettled, in addition to the frigid, winter landscape. The setting..... the environment, is the story's antagonist. It challenges the man at every turn, and the man is like an ignorant child, who believes he knows it all and knows nothing. The temperature will not relent, the snow will not disappear. The man's outlook is positive until he's proven wrong, but he isn't besting an opponent, he's being proven foolish by something he cannot control. The man believes his plan is foolproof, but nature is unpredictable. The miles that stretch between the man and the camp can be counted in distance, but the dangers they hold are countless.