WINTER MOUNTAINEERING 51 



too warm, and leaped out of my sleeping bag think- 

 ing it must be on fire. Then I discovered that in 

 the night a chinook had come. This warm, dry 

 wind occasionally follows a blizzard, and often it 

 appears to make a sudden and triumphant attack 

 upon a cold period. During the short day or two 

 that it dominates it is a blessing. It often raises 

 the temperature thirty or more degrees in a few 

 hours. 



On another cold, windy night I had a poor camp 

 and damp clothes. I had examined the ice around 

 a beaver house to see if it was built by a spring. 

 It was, and I had broken through the thin ice. That 

 night as I shivered by a slow fire I wished that I 

 might have occupied a woodpecker's house. I 

 took comfort in the fact that at no time during the 

 trip would I be annoyed by flies and mosquitoes. 



From the sheltering edge of the woods I watched 

 the high wind stir and sweep the excited snow. 

 The snowflakes had long since been reduced to 

 powder and dust by colliding with cliffs and by 

 being thrown violently against the earth. The 

 wind was intermittent. A wave of snow dust 

 swept along the snow-crusted earth, filling the air; 

 then a few seconds of sunshine played before 

 the next wave followed. Occasionally everything 

 cleared and stopped for an exhibit of the whirlwind. 

 A towering white column of snow dust would spin 

 across the scene. This commonly was followed 

 by another and heavier spiral that was more like a 



