But this just leads me in a complete circle!! Again the question I am asking is, what does Proulx mean by "... they had deepened their intimacy considerably," especially since this supposedly takes place in the "big enough, warm enough" bedroll ?? The wham bam part happens outside of that, after they had "warmed up" 
And again I will specify this is in the context of the short story, not the film. In the film there is no such allusion...
Everyone's view is the correct one for them. My "own correct view" (to quote some column title!) is this. The intimacy being deepened is the
domestic intimacy of camping together for weeks. I tried this idea out and seemed to meet with a lot of agreement on another thread -- see quotes below.
I just don't think, IMHO, that foreplay is part of the prior "intimacy." I know this is an unsatisfying conclusion to my pals who want a rich classic romance before the first tent scene.
I also think that the love scene is meant to be sudden and unexpected. Just don't see any warm up that the other posts talk of. But who knows?
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*Many* scenes express the natural flow towards an increasingly mutual and domestical camp life (I shd say camping life).
Within all the general camping activity like packing horses, whittling in the tent on a rainy day, etc, there are several overt scenes which I think are meant to show a deepening common life. They cook a lot, with the camera pointed at the pan, less at Ennis. There's the Ennis washing scene, they put up a tent, they take it down, they drink often and in detail, from the same bottle; Jack's in the buff washing Ennis' shirt, etc. Jack goes off to pee (book makes a bit of a deal of this).
I think the creators are using these scenes to make the progress to an intimate life seem more likely, "inevitable" Proulx says in the story.
The funny thing is, all the domesticity seems to take the place of overt romantic flirtatious behavior.
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