Missing hunters in Colorado

News article said there was no visible signs though and I would think a lighting strike would leave visible signs. Even if they were under a tree that got hit so it wasnt direct, I would think it would leave visible signs.

I don’t know though. Never been hit nor do I know anyone that has.
Guy I knew years ago got knocked out for an indeterminate amount of time with no immediate obvious signs as to what happened. He had no idea what had gone on after he woke up. He drug himself back to the truck and eventually landed in the ER. They found a couple of small burns below his eyebrows. He was sitting glassing during an August summer monsoon. With the burns and the fact that he was glassing during a storm is how they figured he most likely got hit by ground lightning that came up mostly through the tripod. If those guys were sitting on the ground riding out a storm I could see them possibly getting nailed that way and it not showing anything obvious.

That article says autopsy will be done today so we'll know soon enough.
 
This podcast made me realize how easy it might be to slip into hypothermia without realizing it. Out there hiking and cold, just trying to get to that spot as fast as you can, it’s easy to get used to being uncomfortable, and easy to keep pushing until it’s too late. Who knows what happened to these guys but I know there’s a bunch of guys here who wouldn’t hit the InReach SOS for a broken arm or dislocated shoulder, let alone “feeling pretty cold”.

Epic Outdoors 294 Epic Survival Stranded During CO 2nd Rifle
Yea I’ve heard that podcast. He was almost toast. Think I remember him barely being able to hit the button. He made a lot of mistakes his self
 
If those guys were sitting on the ground riding out a storm I could see them possibly getting nailed that way and it not showing anything obvious.

Electrical wounds can appear pretty minor at the surface of the skin, even if there's a bunch of damage underneath - just a small char on top somewhere, discoloration, etc. If the weather was wet and near freezing, and they got hit with lightning enough to be incapacitated, it wouldn't take too long for hypothermia to set in enough to keep them that way. Some sad, dangerous stuff.
 
Guy I knew years ago got knocked out for an indeterminate amount of time with no immediate obvious signs as to what happened. He had no idea what had gone on after he woke up. He drug himself back to the truck and eventually landed in the ER. They found a couple of small burns below his eyebrows. He was sitting glassing during an August summer monsoon. With the burns and the fact that he was glassing during a storm is how they figured he most likely got hit by ground lightning that came up mostly through the tripod. If those guys were sitting on the ground riding out a storm I could see them possibly getting nailed that way and it not showing anything obvious.

That article says autopsy will be done today so we'll know soon enough.
Interesting. Kind of crazy to think something as powerful as lighting could leave such little evidence.
 
Based on this thread, I already activated MapShare, upgraded to the Standard Plan with unlimited tracking, and shared the link with my GF and family. I was just recently in the Gila Wilderness and this thread came up when I got back. I used my Inreach minimally on the trip but now gonna have it on and tracking all day and will just pack more power banks. Also, gonna go through the gear list again. I had two lighters fail on me this weekend which is on me for not testing them. Carrying matches from here on out.
 
RIP, sad story.
I'm hoping it was a fluky thing vs exposure. So many questions;


Did they have their inReach with them? If not, why not...and if so why not use it?
Did they have a compass, GPS, headlamp?
Did they try to light a fire?
Did they have illegal drugs on them?
In what condition did they find them?
 
"People need to go back to the basics and have the technology options as the last resort." Amen
This right here. You can have all the technology in the world but none replaces skills and knowledge of survival. I think people have gotten so reliant on an app or some gadget that it's a false sense of security. Just like in aviation, aviate, navigate then communicate. In a bad situation, a gadget would be my last thought, shelter, and fire is my first 2 priorities, everything else can wait. That's not including if first aid is needed, but take care of what you can directly just to survive and then deal with everything after the fact. I did see this posted to a news article
 

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Even without technology hypothermia is preventable but a lightning strike is just really really bad luck.

I've read To Build a Fire by Jack London enough times to know that I would incinerate the southern 1/4 of Colorado before I would just sit and freeze to death. The key is don't wait too long to start the fire. Once the fire is going then consider the gadgets.

 
RIP to these young men. suspect that the thrill of the hunt and a prospective bull got their Adrenalin pumping and they sadly made some life-ending choices in the heat of the moments that followed.

5M, your posting brought back a memory...in '11 I drew OIL Idaho mountain goat. Wife and I hiked deep into Washington Basin to find a billy. It was bluebird skies getting toward dark as we set up a floorless GoLite dome tent on a high 8000' ridgeline. We were set to crawl in for the night when I saw a wicked band of clouds forming in the distance and closing fast. I was instantly sick to my stomach, but knew we had time if we reacted immediately.
I told the wife that the high ridge point that I had chosen for our camp might have been scenic, but it was a dangerous choice and that we needed to get the hell outta there and quickly. The winds were wailing and thunder was roaring in mere minutes.

I grabbed the erect dome tent in one hand and a pack in the other, wife grabbed her crap as well and we both sprinted straight down the ridgeline about 1/2 mile as fast as we could. By the time we got down about 500 feet in elevation the rain and lightening started. Our new spot wasn't ideal, but it was far better and safer.
It was intense watching the many, many strikes above us and EXACTLY WHERE OUR CAMP WAS. I mean precisely.

I'm convinced we'd have been killed had we not moved, not a doubt. I (we) learned a valuable lesson that day.
My buddy and I went out to CO in 2015 for our first ever elk hunt... archery. We were spiked out at 10'400 in the Sarvis Creek wilderness. A storm came with lightning and our hairs were standing up and we could hear the rocks buzzing. I guess from the charge of the lightning. I was a bit nervous that night!
 
5M, your posting brought back a memory...in '11 I drew OIL Idaho mountain goat. Wife and I hiked deep into Washington Basin to find a billy. It was bluebird skies getting toward dark as we set up a floorless GoLite dome tent on a high 8000' ridgeline. We were set to crawl in for the night when I saw a wicked band of clouds forming in the distance and closing fast. I was instantly sick to my stomach, but knew we had time if we reacted immediately.
Ya, I think it was 2008 when I was bowhunting elk. I was planning on heading home the next morning to resupply and take a couple days off. I was on this ridgetop and looked to the West. There was this storm in the distance that covered the whole horizon. I immediately thought to myself, "that thing looks nasty and it's a comin". I figured hunting the rest of the day probably wasn't going to happen, so might as well head home now.

I got to my wall tent base camp and quickly grabbed a few things and took off. While I was driving maybe 15 miles away I looked in my rearview mirror and the entire range was covered. All I could see was solid black with constant lightning lighting up the entire system. When I got back up there a few days later, you could see the effects of that storm.......trees down, road just about washed out in several places. It was crazy. Very happy to not have had to sit in a tent through that thing. I got stuck up around 13k feet one year when a storm came out of nowhere.......pouring rain, hail, nonstop lightning, and thunder so loud I had my hands over my ears. Lasted about 20 minutes. Not fun at all.

Looking at the weather maps at their location showing 2+ inches of rain, I bet it was similar for them. You don't want to be above tree line, but you also don't want to be under a tree either. And rocky overhangs are a bad idea as well. It's tough to make the right decision when you're in it. What is right in those conditions?
 
I'm wondering if they may have drank some unsafe water or ate some spoiled food causing them to get sick and unable to protect themselves from the weather that night. It just seems so strange especially since they were found only 2 miles from the truck. I would think if they thought it was going to be too bad they would've just made a mad dash back to the trailhead.

A guy here in Oregon this summer drank from a creek and got super sick and basically was laying on the ground for a few days before hiking himself out. If the weather had turned he likely wouldn't have survived.
 
Just a few months ago, I was on my way to my first appointment (I'm a farrier), and my client called, hysterical, and said the horses got struck by lightning. When I arrived, 2 of the horses were dead on the mountainside, one halfway on top of the other. There was no physical evidence on their bodies of a lightning strike. The only reason we knew it was lightning was because of the nature of the storm that rolled through the night prior. Her house got struck, the transformer on the utility pole along her driveway got struck, and she said the storm was unlike anything she'd ever experienced. Constant lightning everywhere, like she was inside the storm cloud.

For whatever reason, I expected some sort of burnt hole, like they got stabbed with a giant fiery sword, but that was not the case.
 
If you are incapacitated how are you going to get sat lock. The biggest advantage the InReach or other units have is the ability to someone else to ping your position and send help. Maybe the phone based systems will get there but currently they do not replace my InReach.

Yeah it’s not gonna replace the inreach yet but I wanted to bring it to people’s attention who might already have an iPhone capable of it since it’s an option if you don’t have an inreach or something else.

Better than nothing
 
I'm wondering if they may have drank some unsafe water or ate some spoiled food causing them to get sick and unable to protect themselves from the weather that night. It just seems so strange especially since they were found only 2 miles from the truck. I would think if they thought it was going to be too bad they would've just made a mad dash back to the trailhead.

A guy here in Oregon this summer drank from a creek and got super sick and basically was laying on the ground for a few days before hiking himself out. If the weather had turned he likely wouldn't have survived.
It doesn’t work like that out there. 2 miles in is the same as 20. It’s normally when guys try to leave that bad stuff happens as guy have shown in the thread. Time permitting of course leave, but like mentioned above treeline the storm appear almost instantly and normally they are not very friendly when they are bad ones.
 
My buddy and I went out to CO in 2015 for our first ever elk hunt... archery. We were spiked out at 10'400 in the Sarvis Creek wilderness. A storm came with lightning and our hairs were standing up and we could hear the rocks buzzing. I guess from the charge of the lightning. I was a bit nervous that night!

I got caught in a storm trying to make it over a pass to a alpine lake this summer. Same thing: you could "feel" the electricity in the air. There was even a sizzle sound all around me and my ears were prickling. Its a terrifying feeling.
 
I was under the impression lightning can kill by stopping your heart if the voltage passes through your torso - and would therefore not necessarily leave any marks. If lightning seems likely you are supposed to spread out if you are with others so that if one is incapacitated by a strike the other can try to revive them. You are also supposed to assume the lightning pose which I believe is squatting down with your heels touching and your elbow touching your knees - the idea being to give ground strike a route from one leg to the other without going through your torso and same for an upper body strike via your elbow touching knee connection. No idea how effective this would be. I have wondering if laying on an inflated camping pad would provide any protection… guessing not much.
 
Interesting. Kind of crazy to think something as powerful as lighting could leave such little evidence.

Two neighbors were hit under the same tree (in the middle of a lot of trees) in Durango my first year there. I spoke w the guy who survived the next day (was knocked unconscious), no visible injuries, unsure of the apparent injuries in the deceased in that incident. It doesn’t take much electrical energy to stop your heart/put you in an arrhythmia. Sometimes your # is up.
 
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