212man,
Vietnam, Dry Season, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, (Lots of Tracked Vehicles of all sizes and types), laterite type talcum powder kind of dust sometimes a foot deep or so.....Chinooks carrying max weight loads on slings into and out of unprepared LZ's......getting the image?
It is possible to Hover over to a waiting sling load....hook up....and depart when the dust cloud sometimes reached 300 feet high.
The Trick was to find a set of reference items....Rocks, Howitizer Projectiles, Ammo Cans, Sand Bags, Jeeps, logs....anything that was not going to blow away. Then, the brief to the NHP was your hover plan....this rock to that ammo can...to that cloverleaf of cannon shells...to the load....so he knew what cues you planned on and what to look for himself.
As you got the slings tight it was max power, Instrument Takeoff US Army Style...Hover Attitude with Max Power applied until positive rate of climb..then Five Degrees nose low....and wait to see something visually as you emerged from the dust.
Landing was just the opposite....pick a solid reference point....arrive ahead of the Dust Cloud, release the load, clear the load and land to your Reference point. If you lose sight of the Reference point it is Wings level and arrive with a fair rate of descent with no effort to feel for, seek, or hunt the ground....stand on the brakes, collective on the floor and wait for the dust to settle.
We wore Goggles to keep the dust out of our eyes.
Snow is no different except for the loss of surface definition in the classic Whiteout scenario... where Dust usually has only the loss of cues due to the dust cloud.
Long answer to your question....the short version is "Yes"...a Rucksack or anything else for that matter helps. The key on landing is not to make a slow, hovering approach and landing. You want to be firmly on the ground when the Dust/Snow Cloud catches up with you....even if it means a bit of ground run.
Night really complicates matters.