Day 1 - Knocked over by the wind

There's a first for everything, they say. In my recollection, I have never been knocked off my feet by wind of any kind. Until today.

We were coming down off a saddle, where I made some impromptu comments during the shooting of a TV scene, and nearly rendered my hands incapable of moving putting on my down jacket.* The wind was horrible, whipping up the snow and grit, hammering the three brave souls that had made it up there. I don't think I will be needing any microdermabration of similar face treatments anytime soon. 

Crossing a small snow chute, I misstepped and was slighty off balance for a sec, when BAM out of the blue a wind gust (gust sounds way too friendly for what it felt like) hit me and pack and the snowshoes on the pack, and knocked me straight into the snow. Hardpacked snow. At an angle, rather steep actually.

Of course I'm blessed with incredible coolheadedness under pressure and cat-like reflexes, so jamming the walking stick into the hardened surface and leaning on it with all my might, to slow down the descent that could only have ended in disaster, was all in a day's work for me. Lesser souls would have....

Just kidding of course, but without the stick the slide could have been a nasty one.

Conditions are tough, the deep snow and high winds making some areas inaccessible for now. But the forecast is looking good (ignoring the foot of snow that has been predicted for the next 24 hours, I'm pretending that won't happen). We might just be huddling together in a small area for a little while, those that have a tag, and their friends.

* On that high saddle I tried to take off my KUIU rain jacket; I found that it had frozen to the fleece jacket underneath it. Two things can be deduced from that. The insulation layer of merino blend/merino/fleece is doing it's job; not enough body heat made it to the outside to prevent the freezing. The 'breathing' capabilities of the raingear leaves something to be desired; enough moisture built up to allow the two layers to freeze together. KUIU claims that their newer raingear breathes better. Well, I have a place where I can test it!