Snow Blindness

Three days of glare off the high fields cooked your eyes slow, and on the third night the light went out entirely. You are stone blind, both eyes scalded and blistered, the lids swollen to seams that weep without stopping. The doctor washes them with boric solution, drips in cocaine drops against the agony, and binds both eyes in cotton, and he will not promise the haze at the edges ever fully lifts.

• Stone blind for 4 to 6 days, both eyes bandaged, the wrap comes off only in a fully darkened room
• Must be led by hand, rein or voice everywhere, no riding unassisted, no firearms, no reading
• After the wrap comes off, dim rooms and dusk only for a week, a slit-cut cloth over the eyes in daylight
• /me stands rigid with both eyes bound in cotton, head tilting to follow voices

Recovery Bandaged 4 to 6 days, sight returning in fog over 2 weeks, the edges deciding after that.·Doctor, urgently

You woke in the night to sand under both lids that no water would rinse, and by morning your eyes had swollen shut and would not be argued open. The glare has burned the surface of them raw. The doctor parts the lids with his thumbs, floods each eye with cool boric wash, and binds both shut with cotton and a dark cloth, telling you the burn must now heal in the dark it should have had all along.

• Both eyes bandaged shut for 3 days, no peeking, light on the raw surface sets the burn back
• Led by rein, rope or elbow everywhere, no riding alone, no shooting, no fine work
• Cool wet cloths over the wrap every few hours, laudanum at night if the grinding will not let you sleep
• /me turns toward each voice by ear, both eyes hidden under a dark cloth binding

Recovery Three days bound in the dark, then a week of squinting ache before the eyes are your own again.·Doctor required

Your partner noticed before you did, the way you kept reaching for a canteen that sat plain in front of you. By dusk the world had shut to a burning white blur and you rode the last miles blind, your horse on a lead. The doctor finds both eyes scalded and swollen, washes them cool, and bandages you into the darkness you cannot be trusted to keep on your own.

• Blind under the bandage for 2 to 3 days, removed only in a darkened room for washing
• Travel only led on a rein or a rope line, no firearms, no cards, no work needing eyes
• /me rides on a lead rein, head bowed under the hat, both eyes wrapped in white

Recovery Two to three days in the wrap, then a week of watering squints in low light.·Doctor required

It feels like a man shoveled half the desert under your eyelids and stitched them down over it. Every blink drags grit across a burn. The lids are swollen, the weeping constant, and the light of one candle lands like a knife. The doctor drips cocaine solution into each eye to buy you an hour of peace, then binds them both and orders three days of dark, cool cloths and patience.

• Both eyes bandaged 2 to 3 days, dark room when the wrap is changed, no daylight on the bare eye
• No riding unled, no shooting, no reading or writing until the wrap is off and a doctor agrees
• Someone must change the cool cloths and lead you to meals, privy and bed
• /me presses a cool wet cloth over the bandaged eyes and breathes through the sting

Recovery Bound for up to 3 days, gritty and light-shy for a week after.·Doctor required

The burn crept up through the afternoon, an ache, then an ember, then a fire behind both eyes. You can force them open to slits but the world is white flame and weeping. The doctor washes both eyes, shades the lamp with his hat, and wraps them for a night and a day, calling it snow fire and calling you lucky it is no worse.

• Eyes bandaged for a full night and day, then dark or shaded rooms only for 2 more days
• No riding point, no lookout duty, no aiming a firearm for 3 days
• /me lifts the edge of the eye wrap a hair, winces at the lamp and lets it fall

Recovery A day bound and blind, three more squinting in the shade, whole inside the week.·Doctor required

You can see, barely, through tears and slitted lids, the world swimming like the bottom of a creek. Every blink grinds. The doctor finds both eyes scalded, swears mildly at men who ride the high snow bare-eyed, washes them with cool boric solution and orders you into a darkened room with wet cloths and a bottle of patience.

• Darkened room for a day and a night, cool wet cloths over the closed eyes, changed hourly
• Outdoors only at dawn, dusk or under heavy cloud for 3 days, a slit-cut band over the eyes otherwise
• No shooting, no fine work, no reading for 3 days
• /me sits back in the dark with a wet cloth laid over both closed eyes

Recovery A day in the dark, then three days of watering squints, right by week's end.·Doctor required

Both eyes have shrunk to weeping slits and your own hand at arm's length is a pale rumor. The burn is real but shallow, the doctor says, prying one lid open under a shaded lamp and grunting at what he finds. Cool washes, a shaded band, and two days of living like a cellar mushroom, and you keep every bit of your sight.

• A shaded band or doubled kerchief over the eyes in any daylight for 2 days
• No riding without a companion within hailing distance for 2 days
• No shooting or lookout work for 3 days
• /me peers through weeping slits, tears cutting tracks through the trail dust

Recovery Two days shaded and led easy, clear-eyed within five.·Doctor advised

The world has gone to permanent dusk, gray shapes swimming in white soup, and the ache sits behind your eyes like a hangover that took up residence. It is a solid burn but a clean one. Kept dark, washed cool and left alone, your eyes will mend the way skin does, and in the meantime you are nobody's rifleman.

• Dim rooms and shade only for 2 days, brim low and eyes down whenever the sun is up
• No aiming, no tracking, no reading sign or print for 3 days
• /me squints into the middle distance, seeing dusk at high noon

Recovery Two days of dusk-sight, then sharpening daily, right inside a week.·Doctor advised

Everything past ten feet looks like it is standing behind frosted glass, and everything closer looks unimpressed with you. The glare scalded your eyes just enough to blur the day. It stings, it waters, and it will pass. A cool wash, a dim evening, and a hat worn like you mean it will see you right.

• Blurred sight for a full day, no shooting, no reading, no work needing sharp eyes
• Hat brim low and eyes shaded outdoors for 2 days
• /me rubs at watering eyes and blinks hard at a world gone to frosted glass

Recovery Blurred for a day, tender for two more, clear by the third.·Doctor advised

Every lamp wears a halo and every white surface screams. You spent too long reading the snowfields and now your eyes are reading you the bill. The blur comes and goes in waves with the watering, worst at midday, and a day of shade and cool cloths is the whole of the cure, provided you actually take it.

• Halos and glare-blur around any bright light for a day and a night
• No night riding and no lamp-lit close work for 2 days
• /me tilts the hat down against a lamp wearing three rings of light

Recovery A day of halos, a second of smarting, clean sight by the third.·Doctor advised

You made it off the snowfields with your sight, but it cost you a squint you cannot unclench and a headache that lives one inch behind your eyes. Bright light lands like a slap. You will spend a day handling the world through eyelashes and profanity, and the world will mostly deserve it.

• A constant squint in any daylight for 2 days, eyes shut hard against direct sun
• Headache behind the eyes, no fine or close work for a day
• /me squints hard against the light and mutters something unfit for church

Recovery A day of squinting, a mild ache the day after, done by the third.·Doctor advised

Your eyes have declared a work slowdown. They open for a few seconds, water, and slam shut again on their own schedule, and no foreman's speech from you changes it. The scald is light but even, both eyes together, and they want a day of dim light and cool cloths, and honestly so do you.

• Eyes watering and forcing themselves shut every few minutes for a day, no tasks needing steady sight
• Cool wet cloths over the closed eyes each hour through the evening
• /me blinks long and slow, eyes watering shut in the middle of a sentence

Recovery A day of the long blink, a squinty morning after, clear by day three.·Doctor advised

You look like you have been crying over a bad hand of cards since Tuesday. Both eyes are rimmed red and raw, the light stings, and distance has gone soft at the edges. It is the small end of a snow burn. Shade, cool water and one early night put it behind you, and only the mirror will argue.

• Soft, stinging sight for a day, no long-range shooting or tracking
• Eyes shaded outdoors and rinsed cool morning and night for 2 days
• /me dabs at red-rimmed eyes with a kerchief gone damp at the corner

Recovery Stinging for a day, pink for two, forgotten by the fourth.·No doctor needed

By suppertime your eyes were watering like you had chopped a wagonload of onions, and the campfire wore a fuzzy halo. The glare nipped you, no worse. Keep your brim low tomorrow and give the snowfields the respect of a sideways look, and this stays a one-evening complaint.

• Watering eyes and a light sting through the evening
• Hat brim low and gaze kept off the snow for the next day of travel
• /me wipes both watering eyes on a sleeve and blames the campfire smoke

Recovery An evening of watering, a faint sting at dawn, gone by noon.·No doctor needed

The light got its teeth into you just enough to make daylight rude. Your eyes ache dully and water at any brightness, so you keep to the shady side of the street and the dim end of the saloon for a day. A cool cloth at night, a low brim by day, and it passes like weather.

• Aching, light-shy eyes for a full day, shade preferred
• No aiming into glare and no snowfield lookout work for 2 days
• /me drifts to the shady side of the room, brim tipped against the window light

Recovery One dim day, a tender morning after, then done.·No doctor needed

The snowfields left you a parting gift, a dull ache seated square behind both eyes and a flinch at bright light. Your sight itself stayed sharp. Cool water, a darker corner and an early night send it packing, and tomorrow you will squint at the horizon out of habit rather than need.

• A dull ache behind the eyes through the evening, worse in bright light
• No close reading or fine sewing work tonight
• /me pinches the bridge of the nose, eyes closed against the lamp

Recovery Aches through the evening, gone with a night's sleep.·No doctor needed

You caught yourself squinting like a forty-year mule packer by the second morning, and it saved you. Your eyes are dry-feeling and tender at the corners, a whisper of the burn that could have been, and the only treatment is the one you already invented: eyes narrowed, brim low, gaze off the white.

• Tender, dry-feeling eyes for a day
• Keep the squint and the low brim on any snow travel for 2 days
• /me narrows both eyes to leather-creased slits against the glare

Recovery Tender for a day, right as rain after.·No doctor needed

Some habit older than thought kept your hat tugged low and your eyes on your horse's ears instead of the shining fields, and it spared you. Around the fire your partners weep and swear at the lamplight while your eyes feel merely honest tired. You get to be insufferable about hat discipline for at least a week.

• A touch of dryness at the eyes tonight, nothing more
• First pick of lookout duty, since yours are the only working eyes in camp
• /me tugs the brim lower out of pure vindicated habit

Recovery A dry-eyed evening, nothing by morning.·No doctor needed

The overcast rolled in an hour after you hit the high fields and stayed like a paid escort, and the glare never got its knife out. Your eyes carry a mild scratchiness by evening, the kind a splash of cool water fixes, while the men who crossed a day ahead of you are riding home on lead ropes.

• Mildly scratchy eyes for the evening, cured by cool water
• A story about the luckiest weather of your year, told at least twice
• /me splashes cool water over both eyes and comes up grinning

Recovery A splash of water tonight, nothing tomorrow.·No doctor needed

On the first morning an old trapper at the treeline looked at your bare face, spat, and pressed a pair of carved bone goggles into your hand, two thin slits and a rawhide cord. You wore them the whole crossing. Now you stand in camp the only soul with working eyes among the weeping, and you lead six blind riders down off the mountain roped nose to tail like a pack string, every one of them delivered.

• Eyes untouched, sight sharp as ever
• You now own a pair of carved slit goggles and a story no one can top
• Every rider you led down the mountain owes you a drink and knows it
• /me taps the carved bone goggles hanging from a cord at the neck

Recovery Nothing to recover, save the sleep you lost leading the blind.·No doctor needed