White outs and and how to survive them when they happen unexpectedly to you

If you are in a building and you are safe and warm and a white out appears suddenly where you are it is best to just stay where you are. Even if you have to go out and get firewood you might want to tie a string or twine to your waist so you can find your way back to the house. Another way might be to play loud music that you can hear so you can make it back to the house through your directional hearing because you aren't going to see a thing or even know what direction you are facing otherwise if you are outside.

So, Whiteouts often mean death if you are out in the wilds when they happen or when you are on a road somewhere traveling fast in a car or truck.

One's first reaction to a white out while driving might be to slow down. However, what if the person behind you doesn't slow down too or what if the person in front of you does something different than you or the person behind you. Remember you can no longer see them though you might see head or tail lights a little through the white out. This is why so many people die in white outs in vehicles around the country in 2 to 100 vehicle pileups by the way. So, if you see a white out in the distance the safest thing might be to pull off on an off ramp before you get to the white out and you might hear the crashing vehicles once you are off the freeway.

Christmas Vacation from college in 1970 my buddies and I almost died in a snow blizzard whiteout on Mt. Shasta. We were all between 19 and 22 at the time and still thought we were immortal. But, when we found we were stepping in our own snow shoe tracks because we had walked in a circle and didn't know where we were at all we knew we were in trouble. Luckily, it was night and so one of us had taken a survival course in college in how to survive by digging a snow cave. Since we were in 5 to 10 feet of snow this is what we did to survive the night. Because we could only see maybe at most 3 to 5 feet ahead at best. And this is a good description of what a white out is. You don't know where you are unless you are in a building or maybe you know what road you are walking on or driving on. But that's all you know about your location.

So, don't ever underestimate the killing and maiming power of a white out because I permanently lost my sense of warmth and cold up to a certain point because of almost freezing to death that night in 1970. All the joints in my body hurt for about 2 to 4 years after that. So, unless you want a near death or freezing to death experience be very careful of white outs. If you are in a building stay put and stay warm. If you are in a vehicle get off the hiway before you get to the white out or you could just be one of many vehicles crashing or dying soon into each other because of differences in speed an not being able to see each other in time to avoid a collision.