Comrades!
Lots of lovely, atmospheric (if you'll excuse the pun) stuff about
deepest winters. Just a few northern Russian/Siberian bits and
pieces:
- Those exploding trees. That is one of the wierdest things, and
they're LOUD. It's like a grenade going off, and with the surfaces
around covered with ice and snow, the sound just rolls around, with
it often being very hard to gauge distance and direction.
- At silly temperature like -40c, you can hear your nasal hair
freeze when you inhale and then defrost when you exhale. Honest. A
clicking, ticking. And half the time most will break next time you
blow your nose.
- And your breath freezes and falls to the ground with a rustle the
Siberians call 'the whispering of the stars'
- Ice creaks and groans, as has been said. This is especially true
of frozen lakes and rivers, when it expands to the point that the
pressure will start pushing up ridges of ice along the middle of its
area. You can quite literally watch then being squeezed up, out of
the groaning, complaining ice. Just think what a Heortling would
make of this vision of a valinind being born!
All the best
Mark