Lightning safety while hunting

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

I try not to camp on top, as much as I can help it... but sometimes you gotta camp pretty high. Definitely have just sat in the tent and prayed till the storm passed a couple times.

 

[7mm-08]

Mule and horse were killed by step potential. Lightning must have hit the ground nearby. If the guy was on the ground with both his feet far apart he may have been killed too. Rain slicker wasn't a factor.

I expect this is correct. He likely would not have survived a strike.

 

[MarlinMark]

You're unlikely to be struck by lightning at 10-11 thousand feet when you are surrounded by features that are 11,12,13,14 thousand feet. High Country storms can certainly be powerful and wild as hell, but its also CO and, unless you are bagging peaks, goat hunting or glassing from an unusually high point, you're just not going to be the highest thing around while out hunting. 10,000 feet is well below treeline -I generally enjoy the cozy feeling of being comfortable in my tent during a good storm.

You just have to be the highest/closest point under that particular cloud cell.... not the tallest in the region.

 

[deerhunt1988]

Mule and horse were killed by step potential. Lightning must have hit the ground nearby. If the guy was on the ground with both his feet far apart he may have been killed too. Rain slicker wasn't a factor.

I had never heard the term "step potential" before and had to Google it. Glad I did. Learned something very valuable from this thread!

 

[Jason Snyder]

 

[Azone]

Seems appropriate for those of us that remember this movie.

 

[Poser]

You just have to be the highest/closest point under that particular cloud cell.... not the tallest in the region.

Sure, but in CO, you're not going to be the tallest thing around at 10,000 feet in almost any circumstance.

 

[Jimbee]

I'm guessing that a person standing anywhere in the world will have zero effect on where lightning hits.

 

[TaperPin]

I just read something from the park service that I hadn’t considered, and had never heard before, but makes sense. The mountain side closest to the approaching storm cloud is more likely to get struck than the back side as the storm passes over. It makes sense the energy can be built up and doesn’t discharge as readily until closer to a high point. I learn something new every day.

Most people camp down wind of a higher area, so we’ve been doing it right all along and didn’t know it.

 

[Silverback]

Thanks for all the insight. The night I was in the storm, I was at 10k feet next to a pretty steep ridge that went to 11,500 according to OnX. There were some clusters of trees around me but it was a generally open area, certainly not in the heart of the timberline. I figured since I was next to a ridge that went to 11k feet pretty quick I was probably OK where I was at, but then the storm rolled in and I wasn't so sure.

There was also a boulder field a few hundred feet from where I camped so good to know to watch out for that.

 

[squid-freshprints]

When truly pinned down by lightning I was taught to remove conductors from pack, sit on pack, and cover yourself with poncho. If with a group spread out 50-100 ft apart. A bunch of dudes spread out looks like hay bails sitting in a field, sucks to be one of the bails though. ( I don't feel pinned unless its constant and close, like less than a mile multiple strikes) Awesome tips, cool thread!

 

[Pacific_Fork]

2020 I was in SW CO at 10,500 ft. Lighting and high winds rolled in way worse than I thought was coming. Never have I felt for sure I was going to die. I actually had cell service and called the family to say I love them. 20-30 trees maybe more fell all around me in this dead standing shit hole I couldn’t avoid. I set up camp between two giant pines that were green but leaning away from me. One fell and took out giant rocks down a cliff with it. I had a fire ripping in a titanium stove with 7 ft pipe out my tipi. Lighting all around me hitting rocks and trees close. I couldn’t throw the lighting rod stove out as it was hot, I couldn’t run for different cover in hours of high wind and pissing rain and sleet. I had to lay there all night with my butthole puckered until 5am it stopped. Never, ever again!

 

[BBob]

I had never heard the term "step potential" before and had to Google it. Glad I did. Learned something very valuable from this thread!

I knew a guy that got hit by "ground lightning" which I'd guess is the same thing as "step potential". He was glassing antelope in S AZ yucca country on an archery hunt. This hunt goes on during the monsoon season. One moment he was sitting on the ground glassing with a tripod and the next thing he knew he was waking up lying flat on the ground with a massive headache and had no idea what happened. Couldn't stand up. Gathered his things and crawled back to the truck. Was eventually able to get into the truck and drive himself to the hospital (this was before cell phones so no way to call anyone). His eyelids, eye sockets under his eyebrows were burned. They finally pieced together that during the storm lightning probably hit one of the nearby yucca's and the voltage expanded across the wet ground, through the tripod and through his butt and or feet. How he survived? Had a very lucky day I suppose. The only thing I suppose he could have done was to go sit in the truck during the storm. I hunted many days like that and probably wouldn't have done that and probable still wouldn't. Pretty dang rare event.

 

[CorbLand]

I knew a guy that got hit by "ground lightning" which I'd guess is the same thing as "step potential". He was glassing antelope in S AZ yucca country on an archery hunt. This hunt goes on during the monsoon season. One moment he was sitting on the ground glassing with a tripod and the next thing he knew he was waking up lying flat on the ground with a massive headache and had no idea what happened. Couldn't stand up. Gathered his things and crawled back to the truck. Was eventually able to get into the truck and drive himself to the hospital (this was before cell phones so no way to call anyone). His eyelids, eye sockets under his eyebrows were burned. They finally pieced together that during the storm lightning probably hit one of the nearby yucca's and the voltage expanded across the wet ground, through the tripod and through his butt and or feet. How he survived? Had a very lucky day I suppose. The only thing I suppose he could have done was to go sit in the truck during the storm. I hunted many days like that and probably wouldn't have done that and probable still wouldn't. Pretty dang rare event.

Where I come from we call that "shit luck."

 

[RS_Non-Res]

I've got two things to contribute to this enlightening discussion:

1) Sailors trying to lightning-proof their boats have a saying "Lighning is a lot like a woman. It'll never do what you want it to do, but if you help it do what it wants to do, it just might cooperate with you." They pretty much write off all the electronics and are just trying to prevent a hole from being blasted through the hull.

2) My Lightning Tracker ... I use it for work ... 4.8 stars over thousands of reviews. Groundstrikes and cloud-to-cloud.


NOAA Lighting Tracking 101

 

[Silverback]

enlightening

Nice