in the hills , the snow was falling faster and more furiously than hallorann had ever seen ( which was , perhaps , not to say a great deal , since hallorann had seen as little snow as he could manage in his lifetime ) , and the wind was blowing a capricious gale-now from the west , now backing around to the north , sending clouds of powdery snow across his field of vision , making him coldly aware again and again that if he missed a turn he might well plunge two hundred feet off the road , the electra cartwheeling ass over teapot as it went down .