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Wack
climber
Dazevue
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We played "Lightning Lotto" on SD a decade or so ago. The front moved in from the other side ambushing us on a clear day. The first indication that we might have an issue were lightning strikes on Starr King. We were close to the end and decided to time the strikes on SK. At the top of SD we had no strikes closer then SK, the interval between strikes was getting longer and seemed to be moving away. We weren't buzzing so after a half hour strike free, scurried over the top towards the cables. At the Summit, a lone crazed day hiker asked us to take his picture. He was annoyed because we told him 3 guys got zapped and died here. We did a record decent of the lightening rod cables.
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scooter
climber
fist clamp
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Funny, it took all those people to say the same thing. I don't think it really matters too much what you (people) do in nature. We have absolutely no control over what is going to happen, rap or not. I don't think you changed the odds at that point by rapping. Except maybe to rap off the ends of your rope or get struck and have a high angle rescue as opposed to a summit or near summit rescue.
Patrick
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leinosaur
Trad climber
burns flat, ok
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Good call CMac -
The above is a well-written and informative read about a party in the 80's which paid dearly for making the wrong choices.
If you're buzzing with electricity, you are very much in the wrong place . . . your life is definitely worth a few 'biners.
On the other hand, lightning-struck ropes tend to disintegrate!
A quick Snake Dike downclimb, anyone?
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rmuir
Social climber
the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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OK, SamRoberts... You said,"One time we were climbing one of the long routes on the noth side of Tahqutiz" (sic)...
Years ago, we had just blasted up The Step on Tahquitz and encountered rain on the summit pitch coupled with one or two HUGE thunder claps. Running across the summit boulders, we encountered two guys in exactly the situation you describe.
As I recall, you were hunkered-down near a boulder and a tree. There was evidence of a lightning strike hitting the tree and then arcing to the boulder near where you got hit. Your partner was quite shaken, and said that your heart had stopped; we had gotten to you just as you were revived. You, as might be imagined, were totally out of it.
The descent was epic, but we did eventually get you down to town.
So... Was that you?
(Can't remember who I was with on that... Maybe Steve West?)
My fuzzy recollection of Freedom of the Hills says that you should never take shelter in a recess because of arcing.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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I recall the story of a couple of guys who were literally blasted out of their tent, one night below Mt. Alice. For some reason that story seemed spookier than the ones where folks got zapped standing up.
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Nor Cal
Trad climber
San Mateo
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I worked with a guy named Bill Pippey, it is his friend that are featured in the Shattered Air book, infact his picture is in the book. Bill does not even like to looks at pictures of HD. In our Yosemite confrence room we have a picture of HD with lightnening hitting it, Bill always had his back to the picture when in meetings...
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SamRoberts
climber
Bay Area
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Hi Robs, That very well could have been me. I do remember a couple of guys there when I came to. I also remember the look on their (your?) face and that scared me as much as anything! You're right, I was pretty out of it on that descent, in fact I don't remember that you guys were with us. That was in 1981or 1980. Anyway, thanks a lot Robs!
BTW, how is Steve West doing?
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Bart Fay
Social climber
Redlands, CA
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I have often questioned the risk of carrying 'metalic' gear relative to lightning.
Its not like you have a 10ft steel rod on your head and a cable out your arse connected to the earth's core.
What you probably have is shoes with insulating soles and aluminum decorations on a gear sling.
Would holding a Sierra Cup really make you a better path to ground than just being wet and standing in the open ?
Wives tale perhaps ?
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Shingle
climber
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Based on anecdotal evidence, lightning seems to strike crucifixes and medallions hanging around people's necks, and often leaves a burn shaped like the medal. This would seem to suggest it is not a wives tale, unless the wives were pretty well versed in lightning behavior.
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Bart Fay
Social climber
Redlands, CA
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Seems like the necklace burns could be attributed to varied resistance at that spot creating the heat to burn.
I'm not convinced that the necklace attracted the lightning. But, what do I know ?
I would also not be surprised that if you were soaked and standing in an open field, that the
lightening would hit the metal necklace first.
Of course, that does not mean that it made you a more favorable target.
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rmuir
Social climber
the Time Before the Rocks Cooled.
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SamRoberts said, "That was in 1981or 1980. Anyway, thanks a lot Robs!"
You got it. Must have been either before the Fall of '79 or after the Summer of 1981, since I was out of the country those two years. And, yes indeed... You were pretty shattered. Fortunately the rain let up quickly, otherwise the descent would have been even more miserable. Steve West, BTW, is still kicking; we just saw him last month at the JT reunion.
The most spectacular thunder I ever heard was in the early morning in Grenoble.fr. The percussive impact collapsed the lungs and RANG throughout the whole valley.
Once, in the Needles.ca, Mike Graber and I had nearly topped-out on one of those marvelous fangs of rock when we experienced the whole nine yards. The loud buzzing, the hair standing on end, the vivid smell of ozone, and the lightning striking everywhere around us. Unfortunately, the rap slings were on the OTHER side of the summit! Our solution (quite stupid, in retrospect), was to strip of every piece of metallic gear, tie it onto the end of 50 m of perlon, dash across the summit, and then haul the gear over the top thinking we'd be well-insulated. Soaked to the bone, but we survived...
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scooter
climber
fist clamp
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In 2000 or 2001 while I was working for YOSAR in Tuolumne, there was a group of 5 or so people who summited Cathedral Peak with a storm approaching. They decided to rap and ditch some gear so they wouldn't have so much metal on them. They got blasted blow the summit sans gear. One guys heart stopped, they were all in shock, from the shock. I could see where the lighting hit one guy in the shoulder/chest area and exited around his lower back. Then it went on to arc around all his partners. What did they do wrong? Got rid of the metal gear and descended from the summit, but they still got struck. High school soccer players get zapped with some frequency, no summit there, no cams, no 'biners. Maybe bad choices to be on the field in questionable weather. Does lightning only strike the absolute summit of Half Dome? I think not.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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I wonder if it has do do with our internal chemistry. The electrolytes, salinity, and small electric pulses in our bodies.
Just thinking out loud.
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originalpmac
Trad climber
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i was lucky enough to get buzzed a few times in a row (indirectly through the rock) a couple of rappels below the summit of Bugaboo Spire. It was probably on of the scariest moments in my life. Our ice axes on our back were all humming, we took off all our metal and squatted in lightning drills, and contemplated death. There was no where to go. Then to top it all off, after the storm passed, we hear this rumbling getting louder and louder, and we are all like, great, now we get killed by rock fall, sweet. Epic.
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wbw
climber
'cross the great divide
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I just want to agree that the book "Shattered Air", is very well written and quite informative. The realization that I have now is that lightning is a much greater threat to all of us, especially those of us that spend as much time as possible outside, than I previously thought.
Having to make a decision about how to handle that threat, a situation which started this thread, is something we should all be prepared to do.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Electricity or electrons will surge through the past of least resistance. They will also follow other paths with more resistance but in fewer numbers. The lower the resistance, the more current flow (more electrons flowing).
A lightning strike from above will follow the path of least resistance to the Earth (ground). Wearing rubber shoes only increases your resistance to earth ground, it doesn't eliminate it.
I'd imagine that trees are struck so often because they are literally rooted into earth ground even though they're not a great conductor. Their height plays a part but it probably has more to due with a good ground connection.
Due to humans being a better conductor than trees, shoes or insulation from earth ground is pretty key to not becoming a human resistor. If you stood next to a tall tree but were barefoot, I'd bet the lightning would choose your signal path over the trees.
This is what leads me to belive that our chemistry is what attracts the flow of electricty. It has to because electrical signals need to constanlty flow between our brain and neural network. Electrolytes and salinity in our bodies provide the signal path for these essential signals.
It's still good to insulate yourself from earth ground in a storm because the better the insulation, the less current flow through your body. The difference between getting badly shocked and getting fried like a bug in one of those bug zappers.
Carrying around a rack full of metal doesn't help either.
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tolman_paul
Trad climber
Anchorage, AK
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I think the path lighting takes isn't so much the path of least resistance, rather it is the path of highest potential between the clouds and the ground. If it were merely the path of least resistance it would be a simple simple shortest straight shot between the cloud to the ground, but we all know lighting strikes aren't nearly so orderly.
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TradIsGood
Chalkless climber
the Gunks end of the country
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Actually not all metal is bad.
If you are worried about lightning, you need a golf club in your rack. Not just any golf club.
It has to be a one iron.
As Lee Trevino noted,
"Even God can't hit a one iron."
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scooter
climber
fist clamp
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Do people with hemochromotosis (sp) need to be especially careful?
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