[pct-l] Lightening on the PCT

[calliger at infolane.com (rjc)]

Forgot what year....3-4 ago? I was at 13.000 about, on Trail Crest high 
trail about
2 miles from the summit of Whitney...sparks played off the end of my ice axe..
hair stood on end- on my arms and head...everyone in my party screamed
and shouted......I ran like hell down the west side trail and yelled at 
everyone to
follow me.

Lightniing struck about 100 yds behind us...in the exact spot I was 
standing ??? if the burn
mark was any indication..BUT..I am not sure...was soooo frightened our time 
was up-
I new from training that a strike was imminent, in a few secs, if your hair 
stands on
end...the pre-strike?? but you never know if it was the exact spot or 
not...our flight reaction
probably clouded my estimate of the situation. Snuggling with my date that 
night was
exceptionally intense as we cherished life and the close call we had...but 
I wonder to this
day why I kept hold of the ice-axe..as it was clearly a lightning rod!! go 
figure...

R

At 09:59 AM 2/11/2005, Jeffrey J. Olson wrote:
>In 1971 I hiked part of the John Muir Trail.  I was 19.  I crumbled two 
>packs o cigarettes my first night - realizing that lucky strikes are not 
>conducive to big elevation changes.  That was next a little creek before 
>trail camp on Whitney.
>The next day I met a guy from Berkeley High School who was hiking the 
>trail and we started hiking together.  Coming up to Tyndall Creek  the sky 
>got darker and darker.  The wind was picking up, gusting to 40 mph.
>We were right at timberline and could see lightening striking off in the 
>direction of Forester Pass.  It was an eerie feeling, being exposed, the 
>wind, the almost constant thunder that got louder and louder as we walked.
>Just beyond timberline we were h iking about 20' apart when a lightening 
>bolt hit a flat rock about 40' in front of me.  It was the most amazing 
>experience of my young life.  The thunder was instantaneous and so loud 
>that I couldn't hear anything - nothing.  The whole world was an absence 
>of sound because it was so loud.
>I was wearing an old camptrails expedition pack, aluminum frame and big 
>red sack, and my thumbs were hooked under the shoulder straps.  I could 
>feel electricity course through the frame, not in a shocking kind of way, 
>but more like the flow of electricity was so big for that half second that 
>the aluminum just radiated it.  I'd never felt the kind of nerve shredding 
>panic that I felt in that moment.  The rock where the lightening hit was 
>smoking.  I glanced back at the fellow I was hiking with and his eyes were 
>wide open and hair standing on end.  I whimpered and began to run up the 
>trail, mindlessly for a couple moments, and then with a purpose to get out 
>of raw exposure.
>100' up the trail was a tall rock, 12' or so, and I threw myself under it 
>as did my new friend.  We huddled against the rock as lightening continued 
>to strike, not so close, but close enough to make my bowels loosen.  This 
>went on for three or four minutes before the storm center moved south and 
>the thunder grew less intense.
>A sound emerged, a kind of soft wailing that was totally eerie and 
>weird.  My friend and I looked at each other and asked what that was.  I 
>got up and walked around to the other side of the rock and two men and a 
>woman were on their knees, eyes closed, hands in prayer positiion in front 
>of them, tears coursing down their cheeks, praying to God to survive the 
>storm.  They didn't even see us.  WE walked back to our packs, put them on 
>and walked away from them.  The sky began to open up we almost skipped 
>down the trail, higher than kites with having survived and a clean, bright 
>beautiful day revealing itself.
>Jeff Olson
>Laramie WY
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