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Thunder and Lightning very very frightning

Re: Thunder and Lightning very very frightning

Postby Sgurr » Tue Jun 07, 2022 7:42 pm

Like al78, my most frightening experience was abroad, in Bulgaria. The local guide wanted us over the summit before lunch, but one of the clients a forceful headmistress and erstwhile leader with the same company, persuaded our first time British leader that we wanted to have lunch earlier as "people" (i.e. her, because she had no time to train) were tired and needed food. We met the most ginormous sttorm on top, peoples' hair was standing on end. Our leader said he felt he had been whacked on the head with a baseball bat, and I ended up going far too fast down the side. ending up in a heap searching for my asthma inhaler. We should have listened to the local, but I don't know if he even knew the correct words.
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Re: Thunder and Lightning very very frightning

Postby Alex W » Wed Jun 08, 2022 2:49 pm

I had a couple of thunder and lightning experiences in the High Sierra doing the John Muir Trail. The first was the day before we were due to climb Mount Whitney from Crabtree Meadow, we had arrived and set up camp after 18 consecutive days of sunshine and blue skies. Not long after arrival the thunder and lightning arrived quite suddenly. We had the biggest hailstones I've ever seen and a flash flood in the camp site. We thought the attempt on Mount Whitney would have to be abandoned, but the Ranger suggested that as long as we were back in camp at the same time as the storm hit then we would be fine. We set off early and summited about 9am with the peak to ourselves. Sure enough by early afternoon the thunder was rolling down the valley and we could see the lightning sparking across the peaks. we were fine and safe, but I worried about the day trippers who would still be on or around the summit.

The second experience was much more of a close encounter. It was our final day and we were walking out. The thunder and lightning arrived unexpectedly again. It was about 7 seconds between lightning and thunderclap, but the guides made us practise lightning drill which was to get off the path into the wood, maintain separation between us and kneel on our packs ensuring boots did not touch the ground. That was great fun until there was no gap between lightning and thunder any more and we did it for real. The feeling of hairs on your neck standing up, the charged atmosphere and the sheer noise and intensity of what was going on is something I don't want to experience again.
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Re: Thunder and Lightning very very frightning

Postby yourname » Fri Jun 24, 2022 10:10 am

We've been stuck in quite a few of the sudden storms in the Alps and the Pyrinees and it is probably the thing that makes me most nervous about hiking and camping.

I haven't been able to find any advice about what to do when caught in a thunderstorm that really reassures me. Most websites insit on planning ahead and avoiding stormy days, which is really good advice but it doesnt cover sudden storms or multi-day trips when you cant just take a day off. Other than that they seem to just give lists of places to avoid (high ground, trees, overhangs, cliffs, bodies of water, places where flooding mught occur). But when you are on mountain that doesn't leave much space!

Also it seems like walking poles are to be discarded as they can conduct electricity but that modern tent poles are ok so you can just put the tent up and shelter in that? I am not sure that I totally believe that though.

If any one has any information on whether or not you can just fire the tent up, i'm all ears.

I'd ideally be heading off the hill as fast as is safely possible I think.
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Re: Thunder and Lightning very very frightning

Postby Girl Outdoors » Fri Jun 24, 2022 11:43 am

My strategy is essentially a conservative risk assessment of the likelihood of T storms occurring in the first place. T storms directly forecast obviously = no go. then down the list. This does mean that I dont set out when some others might and I miss some days when nothing happens but its a choice I make for my own peace of mind.

I also never set up camp on a summit or ridge but then they are windy places anyway. Basically when picking a camp site I ask myself would I be safe/comfortable here in the unlikely event that a storm were to break occur? What would I do etc? I did change the metal poles of my tent for fiberglass ones which does make it less rigid but me more comfortable.

And yes I'm down off the hill at the very first hint of one potentially developing. Some may call me a wimp but having lived in Canada and the mid west I've experienced some nasty electrical storms.
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Re: Thunder and Lightning very very frightning

Postby lenster » Sat Jun 25, 2022 5:47 pm

I once saw lightning strike a boulder on the ridge up to Scafell Pike. I was just below the route up Great Gable having been in that same spot within the hour in glorious conditions. Still gives me shivers imagining someone had been up there at the time. Luckily thunder claps and a dark cloud had sent many people, including myself and two friends, like ants down of the higher edges. You made the right call IMO.
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Re: Thunder and Lightning very very frightning

Postby Caberfeidh » Sun Jun 26, 2022 7:16 am

I knew a bloke who was a gamekeeper; he was hiking up a hill in the Cairngorms when he was struck by lightning, perhaps attracted by his .303 lightning conductor on his shoulder. He staggered around a bit, straightened himself up, and carried on. He was struck again, and decided to call it a day. I enquired as to the effects of the electrocution, and was told that he simply took to his bed for a while and he was ok. "Aye, but, he didnae ken fha (who) he wiz fur a few days, right enough..." :shock:
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Re: Thunder and Lightning very very frightning

Postby jupe1407 » Mon Jun 27, 2022 4:11 pm

I've just had my closest experience on Sat night/Sunday morning with thunder and lightning, whilst descending the Devil's Beeftub during the Ride to the Sun event, on a bike made out of carbon and metal components. A thunderstorm hit literally as the descent began, with rain so heavy one could barely see the road surface, followed up with almighty thunder crack and immediately a very bright lightning flash. Luckily that was as close as it got, but with absolutely no shelter available, soaking wet and in the middle of nowhere I just wanted to get off that hill ASAP. Stopped at the Crook Inn half an hour later and was probably borderline hypothermic.

There were further storms on the surrounding hills as we headed through Blyth Bridge on the way to Edinburgh with forked lightning striking summits to our left.

Like fun, but different.
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