One good example of textual foreshadowing comes early on:

He plunged in among the big spruce trees. The trail was faint. A foot of snow had fallen since the last sled had passed over, and he was glad he was without a sled, traveling light. In fact, he carried nothing but the lunch wrapped in the handkerchief. He was surprised, however, at the cold.
(London, "To Build a Fire," eNotes eText)

Referring to the trail as "faint" shows that the area has not been traveled much recently; others know how dangerous the cold can be. The man's lack of a sled, and his only item being his lunch, shows the lack of preparation that leads to his death; he is not mentally prepared for the extreme cold of the Yukon and so does not bring enough matches, or a flint-and-steel which cannot burn out. Finally, his "surprise" at just how cold it is shows his ego and his failure to prepare; if he had listened to the advice of the Old-Timer, or simply used more common sense in preparing, he might have survived.

Each of these points indicates his later failure; he has no sled, and so only one dog -- he might have been able to snuggle in with multiple sled-dogs and survive that way. He only has his lunch and no other supplies -- he was not thinking ahead. He is surprised at the cold -- because he didn't listen to advice, and so the cold is what kills him.