Anyone ever have their tent stroke while inside? Whats the best setup spot? Down low near the creek bottom, in a large outcrop of boulders, within a large stand of trees (Aspens or Evergreens)? Never had much luck finding a cave to camp in...lol.
Thanks for sharing
There are so many variables with the question, there isn't going to be one right answer. It just depends on the terrain, temperatures, water, climate, altitude, storm tendencies and many other variables are. As in this attached image, the ravine (#3) is perhaps the safest option if you can't get indoors, but I doubt I would set up camp there. Caves aren't necessarily great options either. There are a number of accounts of people being struck inside caves.
Scariest storm I ever faced blew in as I topped the summit of Devil's Tower. We couldn't see it, as the storm was coming from the other side of the Tower. Once on top, we could see the front coming for miles away once we got to the top and had a clear view of lightning striking the ground every few seconds. There is a shallow cave/overhang feature about 1/3 of the way down and there are clear signs of strikes inside that cave (as there are all over the whole tower). We finished our last rappel (of 5) just as the rain hit and all hell broke loose.
Some years ago my buddy Shane and I were hunting elk in Colorado and watched for several mornings in a row, groups of elk pass by on trail. I told him lets go over there and set up a stand. So that afternoon we hiked up there with a stand and looked over several trees. I really wanted to put the stand in a big pine, but Shane thought it would be better up the hill a bit in another tree. We placed the stand and headed back to camp. The next after noon a big thunderstorm took place, so we didn't sit that afternoon, but the next day I went up to sit the stand, and the big pine, where I wanted to put the stand, but blown to bits by lightening.
One is truly at its mercy.
Be careful out there, and have a great bow hunt. BB
I think lightning's one of those random thing's that you only have so much control over.
It lasted a couple hours which is pretty rare for that area. Not fun!
You only have so many options when you get caught like that.
Lightning is a real threat if you are up high. Don't just take your chances. I have had several acquaintainces who have been killed by lightning and, off the top of my head can think of five guys who have been struck directly. Three have been struck more than once. Ironically one of those guys is an electrician.
If you get stuck up high in a T-storm, put down your bow, and crouch on your pack with your feet and knees together. Touch your elbows to your knees and keep your hands close to the ground. If you are with a friend, stay at least 15 yards apart. If someone gets struck and knocked unconscious begin CPR ASAP. Lightning kills by cardiac arrest and victims that receive CPR immediately are often times resuscitated.
elkmtngear's Link
I hate grabbing the sides of my thermarest like I'm on Mr. Toads wild ride!
It's beautiful from a distance though...
Best of Luck, Jeff (Bowsite Sponsor)
I choose my camps with an eye toward safety, comfort and convenience, and don't worry about it after that. There's only so much you can do, and once that's done, enjoy the show!
The best thing you can do is get inside a vehicle, which acts as a Faraday cage. If you have to stay out in it, don't be out in the open, but not near tall trees either. You should crouch on a foam pad or other insulator of some type while staying low on the balls of your feet.
As far as camping goes, I would avoid setting camp up on ridges and not near any really tall trees. You don't want to be near the tallest thing around when a lightning storm comes. Your foam pad should insulate you from the ground and from lightning.
>>On or near high terrain like peaks and ridges (often reversed in the Appalachians)<<
But, never have I been so scared as I was last year on our Wyoming elk hunt. I never imagined actually being inside of a thunderstorm but wow, it was something else. I couple of the strikes I actually lost my wind right before the flash. It was almost like being punched in the gut. I just laid there expecting the tent to be turned into an Easy Bake oven any second. But, the storm finally passed. The tent must have leaked, though, because my sleeping pad was kind of wet. Cheap Cabelas tents.... ha ha.
I made a solo backpacking trip in New Hampshire's White Mountains. Day one I hiked up Mt. Washington and continued to Mt. Adams for the night. Slept in a metal culvert style shelter above treeline. Awoke to a frightening thunderstorm with 70 MPH winds and lighting crashing all around my camp. Remembered a previous a survival story and kneeled on my foam pad until it ended. The shelter had lighting rods on the corners and I could not determine if that made it more or less safe to be in it! On near by Mt. Lafayette a hiker was less fortunate. Not the same storm or the same season, but I think the guy didn't survive. Above treeline it can be very dangerous!
LaGriz
That about sums it up....
I guess if it gets me my wife will be rich from all the insurance money.
Andy'J I bet that day you broke the 100 meter dash record ha ha!
I was thinking the same thing. I guess thing are a little backwards up in the Appalachian country! Even the weather doesn't know up from down.
I try to do an early deer hunt every year in a spot like the photo with the packs. Hmmmm why are those trees on their sides you ask? Why are all of the large trees laying on the ground or splintered in half? grin
I like to camp on the inside elbow of those mtns which is marked as a 3 in the upper part of that excellent diagram and is the strip of green trees below the peak in my pack photo
climb.on's Link
I meet a guy 7 years back who was struck while mountaineering; he now has one kidney and part of a liver, along with some mobility issues. Dying from a strike may be easier than surviving.
SoDakSooner - You remember what year?
Been in a tent in a lightning storm when a bolt splintered a tree 100 yards away. Shit a big rectangular one over that.
Climbed Half Dome in the am and was coming down the steel cables when the sky was getting dark and stormy and there were dozens of people heading up. Most of the time there aren't victims so much as willing volunteers.
Lightning storms pretty typically occur in the afternoon, so it's best to be off the mountain if there's any chance of inclement weather. If you're in a valley area and away from tall trees (but not the tallest object in the vicinity) and still get nailed, it was your time.
Maybe someone will invent a packable metallic kevlar lightning wire you can string from a tall tree near camp to attract bolts (away from you).
Thought the storm pretty much passed, went to start the pump, pushed the lever, motor was starting up and them WHAM I was on my back, the cover was blown off the box and the electric pole it was mounted to was smoking with creosote tar liquified and running down the pole. My head was ringing but I was back in the truck and out of there in seconds. My partner in the truck was just shaking... a minute or so down the road he asked me if I was alright....
Next one was in ID elk hunting, it was popping around pretty good and I was trying to get back to camp after dark, I knew to stay as low as I could. Was walking the bottom of a shallow gulch and the world went bright white and the explosion in my ears was deafening, louder than any gun I've heard. I just found myself on my face on the ground. It must have hit only a few yards behind me, I don't remember getting knocked down, just that I suddenly found myself face in the mud. My head was ringing and I couldn't see, like a flashbulb went off in your eyes. Laid there a few minutes till my head cleared and then hightailed it back to camp.
I hate lightning. Gets my attention every time. Just because it's a ways away and not hitting right on top of you doesn't mean the next one won't.
Sometimes your time is just up.
His brother is actually a wildlife biologist in Montana. Spends a lot of time in the high country.
i put the stock away and fed up just as the first storm in that line hit, light rain, some wind, and not to much of a fire work display.....yet. close to dark coming on.......i left the cook tent to get something from the guides tent. i flipped open the wall tent door and was standing facing the rear of the tent. i think there was a large loud bang......but i can't really remember. i do remember sorta coming too......on my hands and knees facing the wall tent door. the tent was filled with a thick fog of dust and floor debris and the smell of ozone and burning foam. i remember standing up and turning around and just looking at my burning foam pad on top of my aluminum cot.
the strike had hit a lodgepole next to the wall tent......traveled along a root knocking me completely off my feet in the other direction and up my cot's aluminum leg.....setting my foam pad ablaze.......just about where i usually lay my head at night.
made for a pretty good story when i finally got back to the cook tent. sometimes......it's just not your time.
I'd been through countless thunderstorms that summer with no issues. That all changed one early afternoon in July. I had been watching storms form all around with cloud to ground lightening, but they were all miles away. As I watched the distance storms, the clouds around my lookout began to darken and close in. The air was heavy and had a strange feeling to it.
Back then as a lookout, the protocol was to call dispatch over the radio and indicate that you are "signing off due to lightening". Then you turn the radio off and make your way to a wooden chair with glass insulators on each leg bottom. You sit on this chair until the danger passes. Of course, when you sign off, the entire forest personnel hears you. And once you get back down on the ground, you get a little hazing! Lol
Anyways, there I was. 90 feet up, above the tree tops in a metal lookout tower. The storm was intensifying right over me, lightening was cracking all around me. I was 19 years old and thought I was about to buy the farm! Without warning, all the hairs stood up and, KABOOOOM! A bolt hits my lookout tower, wraps around the perimeter and gets to ground. All the while, the tower is shaking.
The storm finally passes. Probably the longest 20 minutes of my life! I get back on the radio and call dispatch and indicate I'm back in service. To say I was rattled was an understatement. Dispatched chuckled and said, "Welcome back"
That was my only summer as a lookout relief. The following summers found me on the ground running an engine crew chasing fires! :)
What about the poles in our tents? Are they unsafe? Electronics charging in m tent? Are they unsafe? Bow hanging on a tree 20 feet from my tent? Is that unsafe?
I'll close with a story about my closest call with lightning. My brother and I used to coon hunt. In 1978 or 79 were attending the Kenton National Coon Hunter Convention and Field Trial in Kenton OH. Largest Coon dog shindig of its kind set up on a farm with camp sites and booths through the farm fields and woods with people selling and buying and swapping coon dogs, gear and lots of BS! My parents, brother and I were meeting w/ Robert C. Kemmer of TN as my brother was buying a pup from him. It was raining lightly and we were sitting under a blue tarp off his truck camper. Across the trail from us about 5 yards was another dealer with a bunch of dogs. Some of the dogs were choker chained to a chain strung between trees. I think there were five coon dogs there. The storm picked up a bit and was raining harder with thunder but nothing bad and suddenly KABOOOM!
I saw a flash at my feet but didn't feel anything. Next thing that got my attention was all the ruckus from those five dogs. All five of those dogs were howling and I looked over they were all on their backs writing and howling and in about a minute they all went silent. I guess lightning struck one of the trees and the charge ran down the tree, out the chain and down each dogs choker chain and killed them all. Unbelievable.
Stay safe - as you can!
BTW, I used to go to the Kenton dog trials back in the day, matter of fact about the same time frame, mid to late seventies...8^)
Killed my first recurve Elk during a lightning storm near Crested Butte (up Cement Creek). I was convinced God ordained my hunt a success because of all the electricity. A few seasons later, I laid awake in a 4-man tent during the most violent of all my mountain storm experiences with my 13 year old son in the same valley near Crested Butte. I recall praying God spare this boy from a bolt of lightning and I'd never stalk Elk in a storm again. Karma.
Dear Lord, I pray we are all spared Your bolt of lightning this and every year we hunt, Amen.
But...When it's time, I'd take a lighting bolt on a high mountain elk hunt as a way to go vs cancer or some other death.
