Me - I You - No Me

I take it you were camped in the clearing below the dam? There's a real lot of nothing west of there, probably a west wind huh? (Isn't google earth great?)

I guess there's two ways of thinking here, one is taking the right gear - low dome tents with 3 or more poles so they don't deform or flap badly, AND big heavy long ugly tent stakes and maybe a deadman or two or tied out to buried rocks.

The other is " oh heck, now what to do?"

First off seek some protected spot and barring that ask yourself seriously, are we in any danger and can our gear take this - maybe go home if there is other objective danger. My wife and I camped in a storm with 80 mph constant winds and I pitched the tent right next to the down wind side of my truck and tied it to the wheels, but in the night I had some serious question as to whether the truck would blow over on us. There was a Sahara type sand storm around us with no way to get out - we were also 20 miles up an abandoned mine road at 6,000 feet - in the summer!

OK - tents have tie outs and many have additional tieouts on the side etc, use them and extra rope to anchor tents, set rocks on top of the stakes. Now is there a spot where you can dig a hole to put your stove in, maybe add a log on the upwind side? I often have to do this in the winter, just dig a narrow hole wide enough to set stove and pots in (watch out for sand in the Vaseline, er food.)

hmm - OTOH most people are not comfortable out side their tents in strong winds so maybe just go home if you can do it safely, or it its not, then huddle together in a couple tents and tell stories.

Jim