Beware! Terror Tales #2 (July 1952) gives us a strange Northern called “Eerie Footsteps in the Red Snow”. The author is not known but the art was done by Bob Powell. This story of ghostly revenge takes place on Mount Olympiad, a fictional location that I think is of a Northern direction. The name suggests Mount Olympus, where the Greek gods dwelt in myths, a place charged with magical possibilities. This story also has the ghost story convention of ghostly revenge, marked by the red footprints in the snow.
It also features another convention: the totally unlikable protagonist. Rigo Mauker is an anti-hero. We don’t feel sorry for him when he gets his comeuppance. His end will satisfy our sense of justice, played out in a court of supernatural judgment.
A band of mountain climber plan to ascend Mt. Olympiad. Among them, Rigo Mauker, a ruthless killer who has no plans to share the glory.
The next day the men leave the lodge and begin their climb. When the opportunity arises, Rigo cuts a lifeline, sending one of them to his death.
The men try to recover the body but it has disappeared. Rigo wants to press on. This brings accusations.
Mauker abandons the others and climbs on alone. Rigo spots the red footprints of the title. He fears someone else will beat him to the top and begins climbing quickly in pursuit. He slips and is about to fall to his death but a ghostly white hand saves him.
Having learned nothing, Rigo meets up with the other two climbers again. He plots their deaths.
Exaltant in being the lone man to climb the mountain, the killer realizes he has no supplies. He must press on anyway.
He finds the red tracks again, but now there are three sets. He follows them to an encampment.
The heat and coffee at the camp saves Rigo from death. He laughs at the stupidity of others. The echoes laugh back.
Later in his climb he is attacked by an eagle. Someone mysteriously shoots the bird. He races to the peak only to meet the spirits of those he killed…
Mountain-climbing stories share many of the same elements as Northerns. Many of the highest mountains are found in places like Alaska, making them both Northerns and climbing stories. This comic is a little vague on where exactly it happens, but the hunting or ski lodge at the beginning suggests it is not in the Himalayas (where most horror comics about mountain climbing take place) but in some Northern locale. The idea of haunted tracks is certainly part of the strange Northern tradition.