Everything Hikers Know About Lightning Safety Is Wrong
backpacker.com
backpacker.com
I was out riding my bike one afternoon in Chatfield State Park in Colorado when I looked up and noticed how quickly the weather changed. Clouds had rolled over the mountains in the west and I heard lightning strike in the distance.
In the same second, I saw electricity arc between my hands and the handle bars as my fingers froze for a second. I didn't feel any pain or shock, but I got out of the area real quick.
There is a hiking in my home state that takes about 2 days to complete. Along the way, there is a huge rock that fits that description; it sits in the middle of an open area. We are taught to never seek shelter under it when there is lightning. When asking why, we’re told that that rock is informally called “The Microwave”, because, well, exactly what the article says.
This has been common knowledge in the area for a very long time already (not sure if specific to that rock or for any cave or overhanging rock in general like the article says).
It also seems to be that people already understand getting off the X. Locally I'm aware of one rescue when someone got off the X and got cliffed out (no surprise given the terrain) and I'm aware of one fatality where the details were never reported but the location of his body only makes sense if he got off the X and got cliffed out--but on the other side where there's no cell service and the missing person's reports made no mention of satellite stuff. I'm not aware of any lighting deaths in the area, though. (Of course the real answer is don't go up there in lightning weather! The day he disappeared I had been considering a hike but considered the weather a no-go.)