EP>(clip)
  >MS>        I think that's the metaphor that Reith was using. The old Four
  >MS>Horsemen metaphor is one of the most common in English and US
  >MS>literature.
EP>MS>        And that part about the wind beginning to howl was a nice 
ouch,
  >MS>I thought. Then again I've been in the desert when a really nasty
  >MS>60-80 mph wind has taken off and it's about as uncomfortable as you can
  >MS>imagine. It's why I keep a pair of GI tank goggles in my pack for when
  >MS>I'm out playing in the sand.
  >MS>___
EP>        I've never really experienced high wind in the desert. Come to
  >        think of it, I've never really been around the desert. Sand and
  >        wind, yes; but not the desert, and certainly nothing like that.
        You can't see anything and it feels like you're being
sandblasted. Quite nasty, and if you're trying to go anywhere, you're
going to get lost even with a compass because in the desert, there are
enough magnetic anomalies that you need to sight on a terrain feature
and then do a back azimuth on another in order to reestablish both true
north and the line of declination until you get to the next terrain
feature when you have to do it all over again.
        Best advice is to sit tight where you're at until it's over and
just stay warm and hydrated.
        I tend to carry a lot of gear and that includes extra water and
something to throw over the windshields so that the sand doesn't pit
them, if I'm in a place where it's prone to that. I had a friend who was
caught in a storm like that in the Mojave once, and his car became
undrivable because he couldn't see out of his newly frosted windows.
Those plastic tarps are cheap insurance against that and they don't take
up much room.
        Currently, I'm looking at getting one of those Russian copies of
a Primus stove and throwing it in my pack. It'd be nice to get into a
dead spot during one of those winds and brew some coffee. There are
often some rather radical drops in ambient temperature beyond normal
windchill when a wind like that comes up,.........., even in summer.
___
 X SLMR 2.1a X Live from Nevada, the Afghanistan of North America!!
--- Maximus 3.01
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