The worst wind I ever experienced was at Pawnee Buttes in Colorado several years ago. It was January and unusually warm (50's) so I checked the weather forecast and it was supposed to be decent for 2 days. I grabbed my pack and hiked out and camped in a very secluded little spot. That evening I started to see a layer of cirrus clouds across the sky so I staked my tent down really well and thought that I had picked a sheltered spot.

The wind came up so hard that I had to sit or lay on the wind side of the tent as the wind was getting under the floor and lifting that side of the tent off the ground. I piled all of my gear on that side and then it really started to blizzard. The snow was coming under my fly and through the mesh and started to cover my stuff with a fine layer of snow.

I was awake all night and when morning hit I got beat to death trying to shove my flapping tent into my pack. I hiked out of there through big drifts and had to use a compass as I could see very litle through the blowing snow. I intentionally shot to one side of where my 4 wheel drive truck was parked and walked the road back to my truck. The State Patrol had closed all of the roads as they were drifting over and my wife was freaking out.

Luckily my little Toyota was lifted high enough with big tires to get through all of the drifts. I don't know how high the wind was but it was steadily blowing hard enough that it was very hard to walk. The gusts would nearly knock me down and did knock me over once.

That was a rough experience but I'm glad I went through it alone as I believe that those experiences help you grow as a person/outdoorsman.

-Skippy