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Les
Trad climber
Brooklyn
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Couple summers ago, got a late start on Irene's Arete with two other friends. Several pitches up, the storm was fast approaching. By the time my partners reached the little belay stance where I'd anchored in, it was a full-on gale with lightning all around us and the rain falling UP the side of Disappointment Peak. We crouched down in the notch below the 10a variation pitch. A while later, it passed, so we continued on, only to be set upon by an even fiercer storm just below the last technical pitch. We climbed through and settled below a huge hanging slab of rock, which thundered and shook every time a bolt of lightning hit the range. We spent quite a frightening while, anchored in, shivering in that dank alcove until the worst of the storm seemed to pass. When it did, we scrambled to the top and immediately descended the first gully (NOT the optimal way down) as the storm made its return. Rap after perilous rap down that bowling alley, ropes getting stuck twice, we finally ended up far below in Garnet Canyon and found our way back to Petzoldt's Caves at around 2 a.m.
Two days later, our Direct Exum plans scrubbed by continued bad weather, we woke later in the day to clear skies. I decided to head up for a run at the Owen Spalding with a couple non-leader friends who had yet to do any climbing on this trip. We opted for the Wittich Cracks variation, a nice little addition of two 5.6 pitches on an otherwise non-technical climb, and neared the summit when the first faint sounds of thunder echoed far off in the distance. To the chagrin of my friends, I immediately turned us around. We were the first party to the rap station, which very quickly became a bottleneck of multiple parties scrambling to get off the peak. The weather hit us on the scramble down, and just when we hit the Black Dike, an unreal clap of thunder sent us diving for cover as it hit the Grand somewhere above our heads. By the time we made it down to the Lower Saddle, the choppers began flying in. It was not until I got home to NY the following day that I learned that the strike had taken the life of a 25-year old woman from Pocatello, Idaho, and seriously injured 6-7 others, who were all high on the Upper Exum's "Friction Pitch." A year or so later, those Rangers involved in the rescue were all awarded medals of commendation for their heroic actions that day.
A year or two ago, I read a beautiful piece in the "Climbing Life" section of Alpinist that stated something along the lines that "no tale of lightning in the mountains is ever exaggerated." Truer words have rarely been spoken.
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de eee
Mountain climber
Tustin
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In 1981 Rob Raker and I were on our way in to do the Mendel Couloir and a storm engulfed us. We were near the Lamarck Col on a little plateau and lightning was striking all around us. We threw our packs down as they were full of crampons, screws, ice axe, etc. and ran as far as we could get away (about 100 yds.). We were nervously looking in opposite directions and my skin was crawling with a million spiders. I turned to ask Raker something and he turned towards me and both of us had our hair standing straight up. Not a real close call but we were gripped!
Another time on the Sun Ribbon with Rob Schroff a storm hit just after we did the tyrolean. It came from the other direction and we had almost no warning. Lighning was hitting the Moon Goddess and we immediately bailed into the gulley to the left. It was pouring rain and hail and the gulley turned into a waterfall. We were too scared to stop and climbed on through the torrent. By then lightning was hitting both aretes and we thought we were dead for sure. 30 minutes later it stopped and the sun came out. We hiked to the summit and watched the storm continue north.
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Euroford
Trad climber
Chicago, IL
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last july on the diamond, dunn/westbay route, we sat out a pretty nasty one in our portaledge at the top of pitch 7. closest i've ever been and i will live a long and happy life if i never get closer. we were fairly well protected beneith table ledge (roof), but were still getting lashed with hail. the thunder/lightning was actually quite amusing at the time, the echo off the diamond and surrounding ridges was unreal.
crankenstein wins though. the petit is damn near the worst feature i could think to get stuck on.
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john hansen
climber
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 9, 2006 - 12:38am PT
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Your stories have been very en ...lightning. A thread that is acually about climbing.
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Anastasia
Trad climber
Near a mountain, CA
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I was driving down the mountain from Mammoth Lakes when suddenly a light flashed...
My car jerked and all the warning lights suddenly went on. At first I doubted the incident and then realized it's reality. At that moment I noticed how people stared at me as they drove past. One guy even pulled up next to me and yelled at me upon how he saw lighting hit my car and how "...it was totally cool!"
I did the only thing left to do. I started laughing...
I then drove home going ninety because my alternator was fried. It was the only way to keep my car going to get home. Speeding with warning lights flashing on and off through the desert was a very surreal experience. It was a perfect ending to the original flash around me.
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Jerry Dodrill
climber
Bodega, CA
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Crazy Sam! Glad you're with us.
How's Karen? Let's get together again sometime.
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pyro
Social climber
I'm not telling,
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Sep 11, 2006 - 02:32pm PT
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I wonder if it woke her up!
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Floyd Hayes
Trad climber
Hidden Valley Lake, CA
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Sep 11, 2006 - 04:34pm PT
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1985. Summit of Eichorn Pinnacle after climbing West Pillar. Surrounding peaks lit up every minute or so by lightning strikes. Although we neither felt nor heard static electricity, we rapped off as quickly as we could. Pelted painfully by marble-sized hail just as we finished the short rap down, we huddled under a rock and shivered in shorts and short-sleeved shirts. Reckoning we would die of hyporthermia if we stayed any longer, we got up and dashed across slippery slabs, which had become ice falls.
Got stuck in a similar hail storm atop East Buttress of Middle Cathedral only 3 days later and had to descend the Kat Walk in the dark.
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