Exactly...
...And the snow pelting your skin in that wind...you just want to sit and get your wits about you.
Have to figure @roamer_1 wasn't 'seeing' our idea of a whiteout.
Feel free to expound how...and btw,.,no smirking here.
I have been caught above the tree line in blowing snow so thick you can't see ten feet,
@DCPatriot ... I know ALL about blizzards.
And I don't mean to be dismissive. It's just that the remedy is almost always the same, and not that hard... The forest is down hill. And the forest is where the avalanches ain't. Get to the forest and you've increased your chances by a long way.
After that, it ain't THAT the wind is blowin.
It's WHERE the wind is blowin' (to bastardize a Ron white quote)...
You simply have to go where the wind ain't... And that's in the lee of something.
That, an axe, a bow saw, a knife, and a ferro rod... a good supply of wood to build a long fire, a pile of boughs, a 10x10 tarp, a 6x16 sheet of plastic, and I don't care how cold it is outside. With that much, in an hour or so, I will be inside, out of the weather, and in 80 degree heat.
Still not great, because you need somewhere to hang your gear and dry it out, but it'll do as long as the wood for the fire holds out.
been there many times. A super shelter (as I described) leads to a colorado leanto, which brings the fire inside, which leads to dry gear and time to make snow shoes if you need em... and you can walk out from there.
A 'dead man's grave' shelter or a quihzhee work just as well (but take a while to build and require deep snow), and any of the above shelters will leave you in considerable comfort in a pinch. And the cold won't matter if you can get warm.
