So, how dusty was it?

[VultureChow]

So dusty that Grai and I are seriously considering an RV next year. Thank god for the Yurticorn. I was just fucking done with it all on Friday.

That said, the crochet hut did survive when other shade structures were failing.

[goathead]

seemed pretty average to me, but then I live here.

[maladroit]

So dusty that Grai and I are seriously considering an RV next year. Thank god for the Yurticorn. I was just fucking done with it all on Friday.

That said, the crochet hut did survive when other shade structures were failing.

I walked past a Yurticorn during a dust storm and someone stuck their head out and screamed "I'M NEVER LEAVING THE YURTICORN!"

I'm too jaded to think that scene wasn't duplicated at least six times in the city...

[Simon of the Playa]

it was so dusty i had to use cocaine suppositories because NOTHING but playa was getting up my nose.

[motskyroonmatick]

Seemed about average to me.

[Eric]

And to bring a virgin along with us as well. (Although to be fair, he had a pretty good attitude about it. Though I could see him getting that "you gotta be fucking kidding me" look on his face near the end.)

We had 4 virgins this year, which is the most ever in our little camp. 3 of the 4 can't wait until next year (they were out having a blast in the dust & cold, and up until sunrise multiple times - even icy-cold Burn night). The 4th is totally hooked as well, but since he lives in Israel he's making his plans for Midburn instead. I think 4 out of 4 is a pretty damn good success rate.

[DrYes]

Had a great time, but the dust definitely got old after awhile. Very dusty, and also the only year I recall being cold during the daytime (Friday afternoon during that day's whiteout).

[Dr Helix]

Dust was tough, but worked through it. Got caught out in it twice. Once on Saturday when I went to turn the gennie off running the lights for Penny. Whiteout time and of course, no goggles or scarf. Had to use the Lamplighters poles as braille and finally sheltered at Playa Info till it passed. Then again on Friday in my art car. Was following another large car and just got swallowed up. First time I've ever stopped in place to wait. Was really worried another car would barrel through and cut me in half. But it cleared somewhat and we made our way to 10 o'clock and danced there. And the last three days (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) were gold. So all in all it was tolerable. But I kept thinking there were a lot of old timers smiling out there and thinking "There! See? Aint no picnic is it?" Or something like that.

[Savannah]

Dustiest Burn week since 2008's two 8-hour whiteouts!

Satisfactions

* Simple adversities feel more healthy & endurable & strengthening than complicated, stupid, interpersonal ones.
* The dust and cold were like a Sprinkle of Bleach-Treated Cooler Melt on a Dusty Street (of Sparkleponies).
* I feel validated in my quest to make yet another playa coat.
* The new folks now know we weren't making all of this up.

[Lonesomebri]

We had a discussion around our camp whether the dust this year was a good thing or a bad thing. I took the pro side, because I'm a positive minded sort of person.

[DavyRay]

Virgin Solo here. I dealt with the dust okay, but it did cause a bit too much drinking in camp.
The cold was another issue. I was ill-prepared for the cold. Thought I was ready for some cold. Discovered that I was not fully prepared for it.
Loved the burn overall.
Fuck the dust.

[Savannah]

Virgin Solo here. I dealt with the dust okay, but it did cause a bit too much drinking in camp.
The cold was another issue. I was ill-prepared for the cold. Thought I was ready for some cold. Discovered that I was not fully prepared for it.
Loved the burn overall.
Fuck the dust.

Heh! Fuck yer Burn.

Welcome, DavyRay! Glad you had a great first Burn.

[maladroit]

Fuck the dust.

Over on the subreddit, there's someone who DID fuck the dust and it did not end up well for them.

[FIGJAM]

The Dust will NOT respect you in the morning!!!

[somebodys-mom]

Having an RV doesn't automatically keep the dust out. I found from experience that not maintaining the seals on one's slide-out room is also a bad idea. Saturday's pre-event Dustpocalypse (I was in an early admission service camp) had dust boiling in around the seals, through the electrical cord (main trailer cord) inlet, around the exhaust for the hot water heater, etc.

I'm on day 3 of cleaning the trailer out. LOL I'm down to washing all the things inside in preparation to put it all back together tomorrow. We pretty much stripped everything out that was removable, cleaned everything including the walls and ceiling and under the slide, cleaned all the stuff that normally goes inside, including the chocks and extra leveling blocks, etc., and will put it all back in tomorrow. On the up side, after-burn cleaning like this helps us go through the things we keep in the trailer (we use it for default camping, too) and make sure we're only taking the stuff we really use.

I could tape all the outside openings shut and use a swamp cooler or generator for the AC inside but that's no fun. I like to open the windows to catch the breeze (during non-dust times) and don't really mind the clean up later.

Also, dirty clothes make great slide-out seals. Just saying.

[tamarakay]

We almost brought Lillian with us this year, and glad we didn't. We will for sure bring a travel trailer if she ever gets to come with us.

[Akela]

The Saturday pre-event storm was pretty demoralizing... the Portland caravan of our EA crew arrived Wednesday night to beautiful conditions, zero lines, and a lot of enthusiasm to build our camp bigger and better than before. Everything went great until we got the high wind warning on Friday night, so we battened down the hatches a little bit and thought we were in good enough shape. We weren't adequately prepared for the 6 am clusterfuck that barreled through the neighborhood. Our shade structure came down on everyone's tents, crushing one of them (I believe the stalwart young lady that inhabited it was already out strapping things down, so narrowly avoided being squished). Our parachute tried to fly away, and got some serious tears in the process. The big, wobbly, partially-built wooden bar stood up fine, which I was thankful for because my tent was pitched right behind the back wall. Everyone was exhausted and bitchy and feeling sorry for themselves by 7:30 when we and our neighbors had everything secured enough to stop worrying about it and just take shelter until there was coffee and bacon a while later. It was a low moment, and made me sort of temporarily forget why I bust my ass doing hard physical labor in shitty conditions for four extra days when so many other camp members are just going to show up on Sunday afternoon, start their drug binge, and never contribute much of anything (including when we tear it all down again a week later). But then things cleared up, and we had a productive day, and went out that night as a crew and had the silliest of adventures, and all was right with the world again.



One afternoon midweek (maybe Wednesday?) I went out to the Temple for a personal project... I sat with a sign I'd painted, encouraging people to come talk with me and share their troubles. It's something I'd wished that I'd run into in previous years as I struggled with grief and self-value issues and wanted human connection in tough moments at the Temple, and I wanted to provide this year because I'm in a much better place personally. About a three minutes after I sat down, a monster storm rolled in. I was probably 20 feet inside the doorway arch, and at several times I couldn't see it at all. I sat there for hours with my goggles and mask on, but only talked to a few people. My theory is that it's tough to get into the communal emotional headspace of the Temple, to confront your loss and heartbreak and anger, to wail and beat your chest, to let out all that pain--to do all of those things--when you can't breathe or see or read the walls. I was sort of in a daze myself, overwhelmed by how relentless the dust was, and felt too sapped to leave even though my time wasn't necessarily well-spent. It was certainly the worst I've experienced in my four years.



There sure were some beautiful mornings, though... I think I caught three sunrises this year, maybe four, and every one was a bright, blue, gorgeous day.

[oscillator]

Dusty yes, but I about froze my butt off some nights.

I was caught trying to steal, post performance, part of Sam's "Angry Trees" forced-air flame-effect pieces to keep warm.

Sam completely understood, since he was also freezing his ass. No harm, no foul.

[skippy3k]

This was a couple streets behind us. Scaffolding came crashing down in the winds on top of the neighbor's tent, yurt, shade structure and Jeep Cherokee. You can see the remains of the hexyurt at the bottom of the pic. Fortunately, no one was inside any of those structures and no one was hurt. Very scary moment but it could have been a lot worse. I do not know how the scaffolding was secured so I can't pass any judgement. But someone's burn was definitely affected.

[Savannah]

Terrifying picture, skippy3--thank you for posting it.

I'm not sure what precautions were taken with that structure above either, but the weather has been so good in recent years that it's easy to worry about collective naivete getting the better of us.

[barca]

This was my first year and I can't wait to be back!!! Fuck yeah! Loved it!!

I got to the gate Tuesday at around 11pm and had to get my tickets at Will Call. Quick. No lines. But as soon as I got the tickets, I looked back at my RV and it was gone! Disappeared in the dust! Total white-out! Huge storm! I remember standing at Will Call looking at the storm... It felt good! I think that was the first moment that I really realized that I made it to burning man... I will never forget that feeling and that moment! Warm welcome from the playa!

Anyway... rushed through the storm back to my RV and stayed there for about 2 hours. Gate closed...

Wednesday morning was the first time I hit the playa on my bike! OMG!! Cant describe that moment, but about 3 hours later it started to get very dusty! Several white-outs! But I was cool with it! I really enjoyed sitting in my bike in the middle of the dust storm and see arts/people/art cars disappear and reappear in the middle of the dust...

My problem was with the cold weather... Didn't prepare properly... I traveled from Brazil and had to buy all my stuff in Walmart (food, blanket, bikes, etc) on my way to BRC... think I was too anxious to arrive at Burning Man that I didn't focus on buying the appropriate blankets (all the rest was good).... I literally almost froze to death on Friday night!!! I remember trying to warm up myself up and my wife on bed without success... It was scary!

But Saturday was a beautiful day and I was happy again!!

[Lonesomebri]

dust.jpg

[hug+kiss]

Most dust for me. First time my lungs were really hurting but only lasted for a few days. Couldn't help but picture those shrimp eggs hatching in my lungs.

Least amount of art I've ever seen. I see pictures and think "Where the hell was that?" I biked right past it and didn't see it through the dust. Didn't go out to the playa when it was really dusty, visited more camps than ever. Met a lot more people and walked miles a day.

[gaminwench]

Grrrl, drink more of the yummy licorice/ginger tea.

I made it JUST FOR YOU!

PlayaLung no more ...

[idio]

it was pretty damned dusty but it really wasnt that bad, provided you had some halfway decent goggles and something to cover your mouth / nose. if this year was one of the worst, then i can handle it. my issue was with the cold - yikes. really, really was not adequately prepared for that. layers worked... but wish i had gloves!

i opted for a buff this year over any kind of mask. i still had the fancy n00b mask from my first burn in 2013 and broke it out, i think one afternoon when it was particularly bad.

it's fun letting the wind push you along the playa in a whiteout. next stop - who knows!

[somebodys-mom]

Cleaning the framework for our shade yesterday and was having dust come out of the insides of the poles and framework. They're ostensibly capped with plastic but apparently not dust proof. I've given up on getting the dust off the outside of the frame itself. That stuff is on like super glue.

[rideincircles]

I planned on giving out hundreds of dust masks when there, but most people out and about all had shemaghs or were covered up with bandanas. I ended up giving a couple boxes to camps nearby and brought most of them home. When it comes to white out conditions and your lungs, you need a dust mask under a shemagh if out on the playa or have a respirator. I had no major lung issues and got used to minor dust conditions, but would grab a mask if anything major rolled thru. I have also experienced pleurisy (lung irritataion that makes it extremely hard to breathe) before and didn't want to take any big chances out in the desert.

When venturing out into the playa on wednesday, I spent about 2 hours riding around blown by the wind in the white-outs taking pictures and had no major issues dealing with it. By the time I was heading back, my nose was getting congested and the interior of the mask probably got pretty gnarly from just ejecting stuff into the dust mask to clear my nasal passages. I was heading back to camp and didn't care, but that mask was done once I got back.

Dust is still everywhere on all my gear and I still am nowhere near having it all put up at home. Need to figure out where to store the hexayurt means I will probably have to remove half the stuff in my garage to get it to fit against the back wall. With so much preparation going into the burn, right now is lazy time, but I will need to get on the ball this weekend. Time to get the house back in order.

[tamarakay]

Cleaning the framework for our shade yesterday and was having dust come out of the insides of the poles and framework. They're ostensibly capped with plastic but apparently not dust proof. I've given up on getting the dust off the outside of the frame itself. That stuff is on like super glue.

spray with a garden sprayer with 1/2 vinegar and 1/2 water. Got it right off ours.

[Canoe]

... When it comes to white out conditions and your lungs, you need a dust mask under a shemagh if out on the playa or have a respirator. ...

Bull.
If you need a mask under one of those you either have a medical condition or you're doing it wrong. And many people do it wrong with the wrong type or poorly fitting dust mask. You certainly saw how poorly your dust mask worked for you.

I have a full-fast resp with N100. I use a bandana for light winds and shemagh for the rest. Never needed the resp. Never gotten plugged up. Next time, you may wish to try the highly popular and recommended bandana or shemagh - you may discover why those people had no interest in a dust mask.

[smiffman]

So dusty I changed my name to dirt........