Wind no 3: flip flap snap

Today's wind blip is the flip, flap, snap of a flag/banner in a warm blustery nor'wester.

It took most of the day for the nor'west to crank up and blow in town. Before then our typical breeze had more of a northerly aspect and felt warmer than usual.

I can hear the banshees howling outside. It will be even more pronounced when I head upstairs to bed. But it's warm. Nice :-)

In the mountains the weather will be extreme 'pants'. I remember two trips in the mountains when I encountered big nor'west storms. During one I had to crawl off a ridge and into a basin (it was too windy to stand). I shared a small rock bivy with a couple of alpine wetas).

On the other occasion the weather came in while I was climbing with a friend. We were exposed, our ropes and everything else was growing ice before our eyes. We would hear the wind, grip and hold on until the blast eased to a mere gale. We inched our way along the ridge and down to a safer altitude and hut. The blast of spin-drift was like being continually pricked with needles. The roar of a nor'west in the mountains is something else.

I'm not sure either experience falls into the fun category but they were character building.

Thank you for your interest and comments on my wind series. I'll catch up with commenting over the next couple of days.