What should have been a short, easy hike turned into a pretty scary situation here. As I left the car, visibility wasn’t really an issue, though the wind was picking up a bit. After reaching mines and starting to cross over towards Flora, the wind and snowdrifts started to get pretty intense. By the time I reached the false summit, I was in almost complete whiteout, with a visibilty of roughly 20 feet. Luckily I knew where I was heading and the hiking wasn’t technical, though miscropikes helped a great deal. Occasionally I post holed through the snowdrifts. As soon as I reached the summit I turned around, which is when conditions got even worse. At a few points I couldn’t see more than 10 feet in any direction, and the wind and snowdrifts were crippling to walk against. A few times the cover broke, and I was able to snap a few pics. Below 12,600’ the route became more clear, though the wind was still ferocious. I can’t believe I experienced this on Mt. Flora in October! It is good to be humbled once in a while.