In a few weeks, a B.C. woman and a guest will head to the Yukon on an all-expense paid, week-long trip through the picturesque northern territory. They’ll hike through the mountains, tour Whitehorse and check out an old-timey casino in Dawson City.
All it’ll cost her is her big toe.
Kelly Green, a Vancouver-based sea kayak instructor, won a strange contest with Tourism Yukon that offered a free trip up north in exchange for a single, severed human toe.
“Well, it’s supposed to be post-mortem so I’m not going to need it anymore,” she told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview. “If I can go down in a little slice of history, I think that’s pretty awesome.”
The contest was launched in June and asked Instagram users to post pictures of their toes that they offered up for donation. The toe is to be used in a cocktail at a local restaurant that is famous for its drink that comes with a human digit in it.
More than 300 entries were submitted using the hashtag #makeatoenation, and the winner was chosen by a random draw.
Green submitted a photo of her and her partner’s toenails painted seafoam green – a fitting colour, she said, because her job brings her out on the ocean.
She said she’s thrilled to win, even if it means part of her body will be used as a cocktail garnish.
“I’m stoked to go to Dawson City, I don’t think I’ve ever been that far north before.”
She has yet to make the deal official but is expected to sign the contract when she visits Downtown Hotel in Dawson City, where the Sourtoe Cocktail has been served since the 1970s.
While she’s at it, Green plans to try the drink, too.
“Of course! I think it would be hypocritical not to,” she said.
The inspiration for the contest came after one of the bar’s mummified toes briefly went missing this summer. The bar has several toes on standby, but losing one was a blow because they’re so difficult to come by.
Fortunately, the stolen toe was returned a few days later with an apology note from a man explaining that he’d drank a little bit too much and decided to steal it.
“I returned it as fast as possible and not damaged. Sincerely, a drunken fool,” the thief wrote in a note attached to the package.
More than 70,000 people are believed to have tried the cocktail, which is classically served with a shot of whiskey. Rules stipulate that, in order to join the Sourtoe Cocktail Club and have official bragging rights, one must let the toe in the drink touch their lips.
At the end of the night, the toe is stored in salt and saved for the next daring customer.
According to local legend, the tradition at the hotel began after a captain found a solitary human toe preserved in a jar in an abandoned cabin.
