Close Encounters
This is just one part of a very long story, but that whole story isn't mine to tell so I'll save it for someone else. I will tell you, however, that I was up on Mt Baker in the wee hours of the morning this past weekend (Saturday the 10th of August, to be exact) watching a storm close in from the East and Southwest. Around midnight, I started sterilizing 18 liters of water; glancing up every time light flashed in the sky. The storm never seemed to be moving closer, but it still worried me slightly.
The sky above our camp was speckled with stars when I slid into my sleeping bag at 1:30 AM. When I awoke at 2:30, however, the sky was dark and no stars remained. Lightening was now striking closer from both aspects. Disconcerting, yes, but nothing to freak out about.
Sometimes you just to listen to Mother Nature.
It isn't even an exaggeration when I say that it began to rain the second I stepped out of camp and buckled the waist buckle of my pack. We switched into rain gear and continued on to the railroad grade. Lightning struck at 10 seconds, then again at 8 seconds, then 6... We were all on edge as the reality hit us; storms were converging above our climbing party and we needed to start dropping our gear and running to low ground. I told the group that electricity (or ozone) smells metallic and that is when you know you're in real serious danger (something I know from a day of fetch with my dog... whole other story in itself). Just then you could hear crackling and buzzing and then there came a flash of light, followed very closely with a BOOM. Our climbing gear was conducting electricity! We all stopped and immediately dropped our bags, making an expedited departure down the ridge to lower land. We hunkered down for about an hour. When the electrical storm passed, the summit was still engulfed and so we decided it best to abort our trip plans.
After a long day of sleep I started to wonder about this occurrence, so I did a little research to see if we did the right thing. Here is what I've found:
-If any of these occur, you are in trouble:
Crackling, buzzing noise
Smell of ozone
Blue glow around someone's head - no, this is not their natural "aura"
Crunching hair
Hair standing on end
-If those do happen, you should:
Try to not shit your pants
Drop everything metallic
Get off anything high like the summit, exposed areas like cliffs, ridges, and open passes
Once you are somewhere low, you can get into a crouched position that looks like a squat with your head tucked between your legs (this is, clearly, a position you'd only be in if you were in grave danger)
-Contrary to popular belief, one second between lightening strike and thunder boom is not equivalent to one mile. Count the time and divide by 5. That is approximate enough. A 10 second count, for example, is equal to 2 miles.
The sky above our camp was speckled with stars when I slid into my sleeping bag at 1:30 AM. When I awoke at 2:30, however, the sky was dark and no stars remained. Lightening was now striking closer from both aspects. Disconcerting, yes, but nothing to freak out about.
It isn't even an exaggeration when I say that it began to rain the second I stepped out of camp and buckled the waist buckle of my pack. We switched into rain gear and continued on to the railroad grade. Lightning struck at 10 seconds, then again at 8 seconds, then 6... We were all on edge as the reality hit us; storms were converging above our climbing party and we needed to start dropping our gear and running to low ground. I told the group that electricity (or ozone) smells metallic and that is when you know you're in real serious danger (something I know from a day of fetch with my dog... whole other story in itself). Just then you could hear crackling and buzzing and then there came a flash of light, followed very closely with a BOOM. Our climbing gear was conducting electricity! We all stopped and immediately dropped our bags, making an expedited departure down the ridge to lower land. We hunkered down for about an hour. When the electrical storm passed, the summit was still engulfed and so we decided it best to abort our trip plans.
-If any of these occur, you are in trouble:
Crackling, buzzing noise
Smell of ozone
Blue glow around someone's head - no, this is not their natural "aura"
Crunching hair
Hair standing on end
-If those do happen, you should:
Try to not shit your pants
Drop everything metallic
Get off anything high like the summit, exposed areas like cliffs, ridges, and open passes
Once you are somewhere low, you can get into a crouched position that looks like a squat with your head tucked between your legs (this is, clearly, a position you'd only be in if you were in grave danger)
-Contrary to popular belief, one second between lightening strike and thunder boom is not equivalent to one mile. Count the time and divide by 5. That is approximate enough. A 10 second count, for example, is equal to 2 miles.
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