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Struck by lightning

vicrev

Active Member
Hi All.......Dougfitz mentioned in one of his posts about the fascination for lightning by this forum,so,I just have to ask the question,has anyone ever been struck by lightning (or nearly) while walking ?? ......... you get struck by just about everything else when walking !!!.............just interested. ........Vicrev
 
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Oh dear. It was a comment about a mis-spelling! Someone had used lightENing, a subject we all seem fascinated with.
 
Sorry, Dougfitz,for misquoting you !!! It might be interesting reading though !!!!!...........Vicrev
 
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I guess all the pilgrims who are stuck by lightning are simply no longer around to talk about it ..... probably thousands of them .....
 
Maybe I should have said "Have you HEARD of anyone being struck by lightening oops! lightning ". Also people do sometimes survive.........I also mentioned near---misses................Vicrev
 
I know of a guy called Paul, now he was struck by something bright on his walk sent him temporarily blind, prognosis was good though he ended his walk and became a Saint like St James !!!
 
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I was way way up on the mountaintop part of the Camino del Salvador (between Leon and Oviedo) with Piers Nicholson, keeper of another fine Camino website. It was a sunny day in September 2009, but as we hit the pass above Busdongo, a huge black storm came howling out of nowhere. It was the coolest thing, being up so high we were AMONG the stormclouds, with rain and ice blowing sideways. I could actually see the rain condensing out of the cloud, and had just pointed that out to Piers when... KABOOM! The lightning and thunder blasted down at the same time, and we both hit the ground yelling like little kids, our hair felt like it was standing up on our heads!

You never saw two people scramble down the face of a mountain so fast, despite the hail and rain and wind and at least two additional near-misses with lightning. We were scraped and soaked when we found the next waymark, way down at the bottom, but we were alive!

Piers, always the cool and calm gentleman, says he does not recall that afternoon in the same terms.

That is as close to lightning as I ever want to get.
 
1st August 1980 I was struck by lightning between Sergeant Man and Pavey Arc in the English Lake District. Two of us were hit by secondaries from sheet lightning.
 
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When a friend and I abandoned the Camino halfway through in 1993 (I returned to it a week later ; she did the Camino from Le Puy with her boyfriend a couple of years later), the instant we hit the hitch-hiking spot to start leaving, and dumped our packs onto the tarmac, lightning struck the nearest telegraph pole.

Twice.
 
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Most people get hit with the ground surge. If you took a direct hit you'd probably be obliterated. In the summer months, storms tend to roll in around noon (at least that's been my experience in the Rockies and every other mountain range I've been in including the Pyranees). It's best to try to be off the summits or out of the passes early. Not always possible on the Camino. Learn to protect yourself. Here is a link to the National Outdoor Leadership School guidelines on lightning:
http://rendezvous.nols.edu/files/Cu...S Backcountry Lightning Safety Guidelines.pdf

Buen Camino
 
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There were a couple of times on the Salvador where I looked at the clouds rolling in and thought I didn't want to hang around up here. I was considering camping on a couple of the peaks but I'm glad I didn't as every night it threatened a storm. Hot weather and growing clouds aren't a good combo in the mountains.
 
The weather was threatening as I trudged past the last albergues for the next 10 kilometers.

I was walking a section of the CF in the middle of nowhere (you know that place) and the storm clouds suddenly gathered to my left, right, front and back. Lightning and thunder all around!! But I was like in a little cone of serenity and wasn't getting rained on - in fact, directly overhead there was a break in the clouds.

It was truly unnerving but my Saints were taking care of me that afternoon. However, I made sure to hold my hiking poles as close to the ground as I could get them just the same.

I think it was the section that included the donativo/barn "cantina" in the middle of nowhere and that weird scarecrow that gets a new outfit occasionally and has that large-ish cross next to it.

Oh, yeah, and I'm sure there were power lines closeby.

Kathy
 
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