Playa wind nightmare stories

[TomServo]

My first night in BRC, 1999, I woke up to the shadows of my tent poles flailing about. Half awake, I ran out with the duct tape...reattached the pole joints...duct taped over the seam...then promptly passed back out. The next morning I opened my tent flap to see our neighbors across the street. The giant tarp, that was the eastern wall of our camp had ripped out of its grommets. Luckily, it was still technically still attached. After about an hour of duct taping every possible malfunction on the camp, I heard from our neighbor, that 110 mph gusts were reported that night.

In 2007..I think..at that other thing in july..I arrived on the tail end of a 14 hour dust storm. After the storm passed, I saw, what used to be, an EZ-up canopy, crumpled beyond recognition.

[FIGJAM]

[youtube][/youtube]

[RedHeaven]

Not many wind stories the past couple years....BRC has gotten very lucky!!
I have a feeling after 2 years of mellow we are in for a doozy

[Ugly Dougly]

Here's a photo of Ygmir lassoing a twister last year.

[FeetOfClay]

reading this thread, i am so glad that Junglesmacks turned me on the idea of renting a small box truck, and using that for my shelter in BRC.

I was gonna go Amtrak from NY to Reno, rent a car, get a tent and rebar, and do it that way. then, Junglesmacks came along, showed me that renting a truck was actually CHEAPER than renting a car, and that the truck could be my shelter. i may need to shut the back door during a bad storm, but i kNOW it won't blow away, which is more than i can say for any tent i was gonna bring

[theCryptofishist]

Here's a photo of Ygmir lassoing a twister last year.

I suppose you're going to say that while Pacos Ygmir was in Texas, he checked in on some grassy knoll.
Conspiracy theorists, always coming up with goofy connections.

[lucky420]

it's true ya know. I read it on wikipedia

[Lassen Forge]

In 2007..I think..at that other thing in july..I arrived on the tail end of a 14 hour dust storm. After the storm passed, I saw, what used to be, an EZ-up canopy, crumpled beyond recognition.

2007 - Legendary. Ug. The first time I remember a 3 day duststorm. Watching shit deconstruct right and left, from domes (tumbleweed) to EZ-ups (but not downs) to tents... Even watched said windstorm deconstruct a long term relationship (long story)... And mind you, the wind wasn't *that* bad (I think it was peaking between 70 and 80) but the dust it was packing was whatmade life shitty.

A good warning - considering the playa is even fluff dustier this year than '07. We get a repeat of these winds - or worse - and you better have handlines between your tents and main structures, and a GPS for finding the portapotties.

[Morrell]

During the peak of the windstorm in 2007(my first Burn), my girlfriend and I had retreated into our little RV to wait it out and fell asleep. We awoke a bit later to see our neighbor ( who we barely knew) salvaging our shade structure with extra rebar. The first of so many random acts of kindness I have experienced at Burning Man over the years!!!

[pizzamancer]

It was a bit dusty on pizza night last year

[FIGJAM]

bump

[FIGJAM]

Okay it's 2008 and it's my first burn. Camping with an experienced group though, who are rebar staking everything in sight. But one other newbie is a self proclaimed "camping expert" who pooh pooh's the camps preperations as "over the top". He sets up a tent and then puts a popup over it, securing it with minimal tent stakes. Of course the winds come and we wait it out. When the dust clears, his popup is gone and his tent is shredded. We find the popup a block down the street on another camps roof. It is damaged but not destroyed. We retrieve it and help him repair it. But he insists once again that tent stakes are all he needs to secure it. So he does. Winds come again. And again, it is gone. This time it is destroyed. He was not asked back the following year to our camp. Some people just can't learn I guess.

[AntiM]

Some pictures from Element 11 regional, held in Utah on a salt marsh. Similar winds to the playa, although a LOT wetter. Many EZ ups went tumbling. E-11 killed our big Coleman tent, too.

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[Simon of the Playa]

any porta potty in a storm...

[mdmf007]

years ago camp next to ours had a tarp catch the wind just right it ripped the 40" long jersey barrier spike (think huge nail an inch thick) out of the ground and on a 10 or 12 foot tether. This tarp flung the nail through the windshield of my truck, paused a second, and then yanked the entire windshield out on its return. It went through a 2 inch diameter hole, turned like a toggle and yanked it right out.

The entire motion took 4 seconds maybe.

Happy times.

[MacGlenver]

^ repost!

I wouldnt call it a nightmare, but this year we had a dust devil blow through our camp. It was really amazing to watch. We were sitting on our bikes, holding beers and getting ready to head out in the middle of the day. I watched a little wind kick up, start swirling next to one of our cars and within 3 or 4 seconds a 4 foot wide, 15 foot tall dust devil formed. It moved away from the car, right toward our 20x30' monkey hut. The hut was filled with inflatable furniture that we'd used the two prior burns. In the two prior burns, the inflatables never even moved during a windstorm (presumably because we had enough wind blocks). The dust devil, however, scraped the back of the monkey hut and sucked all the furniture straight out and threw it spinning 20 feet into the air. I watched in amazement until It headed for our full recycling can and shoved it over like a kid having a tantrum. At which point I dropped my beer (spilled it ) and ran over to prevent a moop disaster. The dust devil then died. Start to finish it was about 10 seconds.

[ranger magnum]

Those windstorms in 07 were fierce. My drink almost spilled in the rv...

[rideincircles]

Bump.

What are the best options on stakes then?

I was looking at the playa staples, but they do get pricey if a bunch are purchased.

http://www.ironmonkeyarts.org/buy-playa ... again.html

I guess it would be relatively easy to cut and bend rebar in a similar fashion. Are there any instructions or places that sell them? What thickness does it need to be?

I still haven't been to any Burns yet. My worst wind disaster was camping at Big Bend in the mountains 2 years ago and I decided to set up my carport over the tent for extra shade, and the wind from a storm nearly ripped it apart and it was almost impossible to sleep until I tore it down in the middle of the night.

Every camping trip I have ever taken is just preparation for the playa.

[skippy3k]

12"-14" lag bolts. There is a massively long thread going on about it here. I swore I would never pound another stake into the ground after using lag bolts this last year.

Edit: Here is that link.

https://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic ... 77&t=68556

[Captain Goddammit]

When you say you want playa wind nightmare stories, let me tell you about when unjonharley farts dust...

[VultureChow]

Bump.

What are the best options on stakes then?

I was looking at the playa staples, but they do get pricey if a bunch are purchased.

http://www.ironmonkeyarts.org/buy-playa ... again.html

I guess it would be relatively easy to cut and bend rebar in a similar fashion. Are there any instructions or places that sell them? What thickness does it need to be?

I still haven't been to any Burns yet. My worst wind disaster was camping at Big Bend in the mountains 2 years ago and I decided to set up my carport over the tent for extra shade, and the wind from a storm nearly ripped it apart and it was almost impossible to sleep until I tore it down in the middle of the night.

Every camping trip I have ever taken is just preparation for the playa.

Totally depends on what you are staking, how you are traveling, etc.

For example the lag bolt solution mentioned above won't be good if you can't bring a drill/driver. If you're doing a camping tent, and weight or packing is an issue, the aluminum military stakes are cheep, light and effective. Never had one pull out.

stakes.jpg

Big shade structure? Ribar or commercial tent stakes.