Lightning

[booya]

What do people normally do during lightning storms? Would you set up your tent to wait it out? Or just stay in the protection of trees and get wet? My tent uses my trekking poles, so they might attract the current? I have seen online that being in a tent is not a safe place to be... So in the middle of the night, if the Lightning is close, would you leave your tent?


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[Tipi Walter]

Would I leave my tent in a lightning storm? I did once back in '83 when I was camping on Horn in the West Hill with its lone oak and got spooked and so I de-pegged and dragged the whole tent and everything in it down the hill several hundred yards to get away from "certain death".

Another time I was spooked on a ridge after listening to my radio pinging out a high wind/lightning warning to I packed up everything in the dark and night hiked 2 miles off the ridge to a creek valley. Around midnight I heard the festivities above me and was glad I moved.

Most of the time though you hunker in and hope your tent has enough guylines for 15 stakes and you're ready for a pounding. Should you leave a tent during a lightning storm? Well, you could step out and start running and a bolt could zap you 400 yards away as you make your escape.

Here's a helpful hint: Look carefully in the gap or on the ridge you plan to camp and study the trees. Previously bolt struck trees have a long gouge from the top down the trunk and this is an indicator that the spot is prone to death strikes. Move on or risk it and see what happens.

[Coffee]

On my CT thru hike last August there was precipitation of varying amounts almost every day of the hike but other than the first four days which featured rain most of the day (unusual, I was told), the weather followed a predictable pattern of blue skies early in the day with clouds building starting late morning throughout the afternoon. I found that storm activity with lightning risk seemed to peak in late afternoon/early evening and mostly dissipate by the time I would want to be sleeping. I got caught hiking in an exposed area on one occasion where I felt uncertain whether to pitch my tent and wait it out or retreat back below treeline. I first decided to pitch and found a low lying spot, but then changed my mind, took down the tent and backtracked a couple of miles to treeline where I was borderline hypothermic. I set up camp and warmed up slowly. Not my finest hour of decision making while backpacking. My advice is to be careful to plan hiking in exposed areas as early as possible. After my scary incident, I became open to creative solutions like very early starts to get past known passes and exposed areas before noon. I had a few 4am starts and actually grew to like the early morning hours.

[HooKooDooKu]

Seems to me a 4' tall tent under the cover of trees has little chance of attracting lightning with all the trees around.

[Uriah]

What do people normally do during lightning storms? Would you set up your tent to wait it out? Or just stay in the protection of trees and get wet? My tent uses my trekking poles, so they might attract the current? I have seen online that being in a tent is not a safe place to be... So in the middle of the night, if the Lightning is close, would you leave your tent?

The optimal course of action is to avoid the lightning. Here in Colorado high country it's best to start early, almost dark early, as the storm systems tend to roll in around midday. But that's not always practical and lightning can't be avoided. In this instance (I've endured many such instances, as all Coloradoan hikers do), get low. Sleep low(er) (i.e., trees) and wait storms out low. It becomes all too obvious when storms hit, thankfully, and you'll know where and where not to be. It may be worth backtracking and/or ditching the poles, especially if they're aluminum. Carbon-fiber doesn't conduct electricity much at all, but many manufacturers wrap a pseudo carbon-looking material around an aluminum framework. Any metal on you (rings, necklaces, anklets, nose ring, earring, neck stud, et al) can only go to attract what you'd rather avoid.

Sleep in the trees (but not under any widow makers!), unless you're certain no storm is brewing, or be ready to get to them. Already this summer I've had a few too many close calls, literally running down some of our peaks in the park here.

[Mags]

I found my Catholic roots came back to me at times over the years....

[Uriah]

I found my Catholic roots came back to me at times over the years....

That's funny. But when prayer doesn't do the trick, cursing might. As per Twain: "Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer."

[Wolf - 23000]

I believe you have to make a judgment call on where you are and the safest course of action. If I'm up high, expose then I'm getting my butt off as fast as I can. If I'm in the tree line then I feel fairly safe depending on what is above me of course.

Wolf

[garlic08]

If I get caught on a ridge and am worried about seeing my next birthday due to lightning, I pitch my tarp and lie down on my insulating pad. If you read something about a tent not being safe, it may be because of ground currents from nearby strikes and you don't want that current traveling through your body. But I feel safe enough lying on my dry CCF pad, a good insulator. I wouldn't want direct contact with earth. I've found it helps to assume the fetal position and whimper a bit .

I don't hesitate to set up camp below tree line if I want a break. But generally I'd rather be hiking in the rain than sitting in my tent. That decision has very little to do with lightning protection. I never climb above tree line when lightning is nearby (30 second rule).

I've never thought about leaving or relocating my tent in a lightning storm. Think of hundreds of thousands of volts arcing across thousands of feet of gap between cloud and ground. A few feet of pole will do nothing to change the path of that energy. Wise site selection is important, as is protection from ground currents.

[MuddyWaters]

my maps show several fairly long all day stretches above tree line.
sometimes, you just have to roll the dice and know odds are in your favor.
worst case, find a way off the ridge and down somewhere, anywhere but on the ridge.

[Coffee]

There are a lot of long stretches far above treeline, so the trick for me on those type of sections was to get a pre-dawn start. I sometimes started as early as 4am. That gave me a good 8-10 hours before any severe weather was likely which was usually enough time to get to safer terrain. But sometimes you just have to hope for good luck and be adaptable. The day before I finished my hike I did a 28 or 29 mile day which included Indian Trail Ridge, a very exposed section, and even an early start didn't get me there until I think 3pm or so. When I got to the start of the exposed section it looked a bit iffy but I went anyway and just got past it on the way down to the lake when it started hailing with thunder in the background! Like Mags these occasions made me rediscover my spiritual side at times.

[Hole-In-The-Hat]

Most of the advice above is good.

If you'd like some reading material, here's one of the most informative articles I've read on lightning in the backcountry: http://rendezvous.nols.edu/files/Cur...ningSafety.pdf

[fiddlehead]

I don't ever remember setting up my tent to get out of lighting storms,
I do remember dropping down in elevation.
Remember, ravine's tend to attract lightning bolts (especially rock ones)
Standing or squatting on your insulated pad is good.
Hiding under the tallest tree around is bad.
I tend to not worry about it until the lightning is within 3 seconds of the thunder.
I think i read somewhere that the general rule is 5, but I have lived with 3.
Just my 2 cents.
Having hiked the CO trail, and CDT twice, the only time I was struck (not directly but, it jumped across a barbed wire fence i was hiking next to) was on the AT in Tenn.

Good luck out there.

[Dochartaigh]

I don't worry about such things 99.99% of the time. Nor do I worry about getting attacked by sharks when I'm swimming in the ocean. Or worry about the plane I'm traveling in crashing.

Maybe, just maybe, if I'm on the tallest spot for miles and miles, with nothing around me, and I happened to bring my metal trekking poles with me for the tent, and a horrible thunder storm is rolling in, and I'm seeing lighting strikes all around me....then maybe I would take some course of action (but then again, I might just go back to sleep as I most likely wouldn't be camping in a spot like that

[BirdBrain]

Seems to me a 4' tall tent under the cover of trees has little chance of attracting lightning with all the trees around.

Trees make great lightning rods. The bigger the tree the bigger the attraction. Remember, lightning is not hitting objects with electricity. They are ripping electrons out of objects. Massive root systems provide great conduits to satisfy charge imbalances. Do not set up next to the largest tree in the area. Many a person have been killed while sitting on huge roots. Pick a canopy of younger trees. The younger trees will also survive high winds better and not drop large dying branches.

[Son Driven]

On any given stormy night, their are 10s of thousands of people camped out on various North American trails. Very few accounts of hikers being struck by lightening. It is always good to have our mortality in check, since their are any number of ways that this day could be our last, and in the end their is no escaping our last day. However, if this is a real fear? Perhaps a hammock would be a good choice for you.

[Tipi Walter]

I tend to not worry about it until the lightning is within 3 seconds of the thunder.

My worst experience with lightning is when the thunder boom and the white light zap comes at the same exact time---you know it's right on top of you and the place you are camping has been targeted so prepare to adjust sphincter and get used to wearing shorts full of fresh turds. Write a goodbye note in your trail journal. Drink a quart of fresh squeezed urine and lay back down and go back to sleep. Curl up with a box turtle and allow raccoons to give you a tongue bath. If morning comes you lived thru another of Miss Nature's beautiful mood swings and are a better man for it etc etc.

[Nooga]

Lightning is a real danger in Colorado:

Richard Kithil, president of the National Lightning Safety Institute, says there are about three to four reported lightning deaths per year in Colorado. The number of people who are hit and survive is much higher, he says. Between 1980 and 2013, there were 91 reported deaths and 434 injuries. - See more at: http://www.cpr.org/news/story/after-....56d6M1Os.dpuf

[ekeverette]

lightning is the the thing that scares me the worst about hiking. I've been hit indirectly before....... so quess that's the fear. Sometimes im such a wimp I plan my hikes ( when I'm already out there) by the forecast. What I have done in those pm thunderstorms on top of me is set everything, pack and all about 25 yards away from me, get my little thermrest pad and squat down on it and pray to anything.

[iAmKrzys]

Most of the advice above is good.

If you'd like some reading material, here's one of the most informative articles I've read on lightning in the backcountry: http://rendezvous.nols.edu/files/Cur...ningSafety.pdf

Thanks for posting. This is a really great article!