You’re on the trail enjoying a Yellowstone guided hiking tour deep in the wild and beautiful Yellowstone backcountry. What began as a clear morning with blue skies and a few wispy cirrus clouds has morphed into early afternoon cloudiness, with big dark-bottomed cumuli bubbling upward toward the stratosphere. The wind is picking up and you can hear thunder rumbling in the distance. Here are a few things that your guide will consider.
First, remember that to some extent avoiding lightening strikes is like rolling the dice. If your number comes up, you’re toast, and there are no guarantees in the wilderness. Yet every good gambler knows how to skew the odds in his/her favor and wilderness travel in thunderstorm weather is no different. Follow a few simple rules and you are extremely unlikely to come to an abrupt electrical ending. First, recall that every 5 seconds that elapse between the lightening and when you hear the thunder represents a mile. So if 25 seconds elapse, the bolt was 5 miles away. Five miles is the threshold at which you need to head toward a safe location.
The following are not safe locations: ridges or summits, even relatively low ones; open areas, especially on ridges or summits but really, just about anywhere that your body would be the tallest object; water; atop a horse or in the mouth of a cave. Avoid these places assiduously during thunderstorms! In addition, avoid isolated trees or small groves of trees. They might act as lightening rods! The “cone of influence” is about twice the distance of the tree height, so get at least that far from the tree/lightening rod. That’s because many injuries and deaths due to lightening are from ground currents near the strike, rather than a direct hit. Again, get off the mountain and as far down into the valley as you can. Valley bottoms are best. Large stands of forest are good, too, as opposed to isolated trees or groves of trees, but don’t stand under the tallest tree in the woods. And if the lightening is very close (minimal time between flash and boom), make sure that only your feet are in contact with the ground, with boots on, crouching like a baseball catcher atop any additional insulation that might be available (pads, clothing, etc.) If you are in a group, spread out, so if there is a hit, some will escape unscathed and be able to perform any necessary first aid or securing of help. Speaking of first aid, lightening strikes are among the only situations in the backcountry in which cardiac arrest can be reversed via CPR. So if you are in the unfortunate position of organizing triage after a lightening strike, take care of those who appear to be “dead” first. Save other injuries for after you’ve performed CPR! For this reason alone, every outdoors-person should take a CPR class and maintain their certification.
Again, though, if you follow the basic rules outlined above, you’ll probably be safe even in the most severe thunderstorms. Don’t be a goal-oriented climber who just has to reach the summit, despite incoming stormy weather. Safety is mostly a matter of making good choices. Nonetheless, in the wilderness there are no guarantees. And in the end, that is one of the great things about wilderness travel.
