I definitely didn't want an S.U.V.; in the 18 years I've lived in Connecticut, I have yet to encounter a flash flood or a sudden mountain on the way to the grocery store.
And every day that the snows do not go gently down the stream raises the possibility of melting into late June and even July, when sudden mountain downpours can set off flash floods, dangerous even without a freight of snow behind them.
"When you grow up in an organization and you get an opportunity to build it, you get near the top of the mountain and, all of a sudden, the mountain crumbles," he said.
Where Bell sees tectonic plates shifting and sudden upheavals of new mountains, Keegan sees one long wave, which has been ebbing and cresting over the centuries.
Despite a fine new tarmac road, this miraculous site remains serene, lost in a landscape of arid mountains and sudden patches of green where most people still rely on donkeys for transport.
Skies glower and the atmosphere surges with fog; in winter the waterfalls sparkle down the black mountains in sudden shafts of cold light and there is a gorgeous heaviness to these fir-dense hills.
As the pair worked their way down the mountain, a sudden storm hit, reducing visibility to near zero.
Then, when the sun rises, it's extraordinarily fast, shooting from the horizon like an orange cannonball and making the whole landscape spring into sudden animation, the big mountain getting to its feet, the dunes flushing with ruddy colour.
All of a sudden, with two major mountain stages remaining, Nibali looks in complete control, having looked utterly composed throughout the time trial, in spite of the heavy rain that drenched the later starters.
Through the dark humid air, Hardy could see mountains lit by sudden flashes of heat lightning, the boom of thunder echoing over the water.
