The storm woke both me and Keith up at about 5am. The tent had its pegs thrown out by the wind and the front was flapping like crazy. I opened up the door into the outer tent, it had a huge pile of snow that had covered our boots and cooker. I grabbed the spade and dashed out to put the pegs back but the wind was too strong and I couldn't get the tent to stay down. I was only outside for about 30 seconds, I couldn’t get an eye on the other two tents to see if they had blown away. I was covered from head to toe in icy cold snow so I came back in to get more warm clothes. Once geared up properly I headed back out into the gnarly cold winds! I slowly made my way around to the windy side of the tent, it was a struggle to stay on my feet!
I had to fix the tent down or we were going to lose it. I was shovelling piles and plies of snow up against the outside wall to hopefully create some kind of barrier from the wind. Meanwhile Keith’s laying down on the inside stoping it from taking off like a kite. I could feel my face freezing and my fur hat was thick with ice. Once I had sorted my tent I had to make sure the girls tent was ok! I grabbed my Parracord, tied one end to the tent and the other around my waist so I could find my way back if the visibility got worse. I walked across the blasting wind tunnel between the tents. The first tent was fine, then onto the girls tent. It had lost four pegs so I quickly put them back in and headed back to my tent to get warm. I climbed into my sleeping bag soaking wet and fell asleep for a few more hours. I woke up warm and dry but the tent was bending over and the tent poles were making strange sounds.
I propped myself up against the side of the tent putting my weight on the pole to give it more strength. That’s we’re i have been for the last 6 hours! The wind is battering the tent harder than I have ever experienced and the weather report says it’s not supposed to stop anytime soon.. it’s going to be a long day and night.