"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...

DSK wrote:
Joe wrote:
Dangerious? or a blessing?


I've read the theory that the electrical discharge reduces
the chance of being struck by lightning.... don't know if
that's true.


I've read that it is a precurser to lighting jumping up

I'd tend to agree. Brief story: my wife, brother, sis-in-law and I were
standing on the top of Mt. Evans in Colorado some years back. Beautiful
day, but ominous clouds were rolling in. Soon it was overcast and we began
to hear thunder from about 50 miles away. As we watched the cell approach
we began to notice that the rocks around us were emanating a sound similar
to frying bacon. Gradually the volume increased until it sounded more like
an electrical crackle. Also noted was that our hair was beginning to stand
away from our heads. Ignorant as we were up to that point, we finally got
the message and beat a very hasty retreat to lower ground. About 15 seconds
later a deafening bolt of lightning struck the area in which we had been
standing. Back at the restaurant/tourist trap at the end of the access
road, we told one of the people who worked there about our experience. She
told us that during storms at night (she and others lived in the dorm up
there at 14,000+ ft.) the workers could see the rocks glowing a subtle blue
in the minutes before a lightning strike. A scientist working at the
high-altitude research adjacent to the restaurant told her it was St. Elmo's
Fire. The following seems to lend some credence to that.

http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weathe...nts/stelmo.htm

Max

Maxprop wrote:
"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...

DSK wrote:

Joe wrote:

Dangerious? or a blessing?


I've read the theory that the electrical discharge reduces
the chance of being struck by lightning.... don't know if
that's true.


I've read that it is a precurser to lighting jumping up


I'd tend to agree. Brief story: my wife, brother, sis-in-law and I were
standing on the top of Mt. Evans in Colorado some years back. Beautiful
day, but ominous clouds were rolling in. Soon it was overcast and we began
to hear thunder from about 50 miles away. As we watched the cell approach
we began to notice that the rocks around us were emanating a sound similar
to frying bacon. Gradually the volume increased until it sounded more like
an electrical crackle. Also noted was that our hair was beginning to stand
away from our heads. Ignorant as we were up to that point, we finally got
the message and beat a very hasty retreat to lower ground. About 15 seconds
later a deafening bolt of lightning struck the area in which we had been
standing. Back at the restaurant/tourist trap at the end of the access
road, we told one of the people who worked there about our experience. She
told us that during storms at night (she and others lived in the dorm up
there at 14,000+ ft.) the workers could see the rocks glowing a subtle blue
in the minutes before a lightning strike. A scientist working at the
high-altitude research adjacent to the restaurant told her it was St. Elmo's
Fire. The following seems to lend some credence to that.

http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weathe...nts/stelmo.htm

Max


I had a similar experience on top of Pike's Peak. But after the bolt of
lightening there was one guy dead. There is a place up on Pike's called
the Devils Playground where you can watch the electrical activity jump
from rock to rock.

Are you a Fourteener bagger? My wife and I have climbed about 15 of
them. Most had significant electrical activity and we always try to be
on our way down well before noon.

Gaz

I seem to have had an attractive relationship with lightning and it
scares me (living in FL). I've seen ball lightning twice, once so
close (20' or so) that it hit the pine tree next to me showering me
with flaming debris.
Once during a thunderstorm when I turned on a faucet, no water came out
when I turned it on but suddenly a bluish glow emerged and wandered
around in the washbasin till it touched the tap, expolded melting the
tap handle.
Sitting on the front porch, lightning hits the road 50' in front of me
leaving a dry spot 20' up and down the road.
My neighbors well has been hit so many times that I told him he has
blanket permission to connect to mine to get water when it happens.
His well is below ground level.
During a thunderstorm while camping, I got out of the car and waited
under a picnic shelter. Just on a hunch, I got up on top of the picnic
table under the shelter and suddenly a bolt jumps out of the nearby
conduit directly to the DRY concrete floor in front of me.
People do not understand why I will not go sailing in thunderstorm
season.

"Gary" wrote in message
news:Bppqf.167172$Gd6.89956@pd7tw3no...
Maxprop wrote:
"Joe" wrote in message
oups.com...

DSK wrote:

Joe wrote:

Dangerious? or a blessing?


I've read the theory that the electrical discharge reduces
the chance of being struck by lightning.... don't know if
that's true.


I've read that it is a precurser to lighting jumping up


I'd tend to agree. Brief story: my wife, brother, sis-in-law and I were
standing on the top of Mt. Evans in Colorado some years back. Beautiful
day, but ominous clouds were rolling in. Soon it was overcast and we
began to hear thunder from about 50 miles away. As we watched the cell
approach we began to notice that the rocks around us were emanating a
sound similar to frying bacon. Gradually the volume increased until it
sounded more like an electrical crackle. Also noted was that our hair
was beginning to stand away from our heads. Ignorant as we were up to
that point, we finally got the message and beat a very hasty retreat to
lower ground. About 15 seconds later a deafening bolt of lightning
struck the area in which we had been standing. Back at the
restaurant/tourist trap at the end of the access road, we told one of the
people who worked there about our experience. She told us that during
storms at night (she and others lived in the dorm up there at 14,000+
ft.) the workers could see the rocks glowing a subtle blue in the minutes
before a lightning strike. A scientist working at the high-altitude
research adjacent to the restaurant told her it was St. Elmo's Fire. The
following seems to lend some credence to that.

http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weathe...nts/stelmo.htm

Max
I had a similar experience on top of Pike's Peak. But after the bolt of
lightening there was one guy dead. There is a place up on Pike's called
the Devils Playground where you can watch the electrical activity jump
from rock to rock.

Are you a Fourteener bagger? My wife and I have climbed about 15 of them.
Most had significant electrical activity and we always try to be on our
way down well before noon.

We did 32 Fourteeners before moving out of Colorado, including Elbert,
Massive, and Harvard. Our intent was to do them all, but we ran out of
time. Oddly enough we only experienced electrical activity on Evans and
Uncompahgre. On Umcompahgre we saw a teen get struck and killed. He was
fascinated by his long hair standing straight out from his head. We yelled
at him to get the *%&$*& off the peak, but he just ignored us. We did
Gray's and Torrey's in the snow, same day as most folks do. I was a pro ski
patrolman at Breckenridge at the time, and part of our training was
mountaineering, which included climbing and skiing crud in untouched
snowfields. We climbed three Fourteeners to their peaks during our
training.

When were you there? Or do you still live in CO?

Max

Maxprop wrote:


I had a similar experience on top of Pike's Peak. But after the bolt of
lightening there was one guy dead. There is a place up on Pike's called
the Devils Playground where you can watch the electrical activity jump
from rock to rock.

Are you a Fourteener bagger? My wife and I have climbed about 15 of them.
Most had significant electrical activity and we always try to be on our
way down well before noon.


We did 32 Fourteeners before moving out of Colorado, including Elbert,
Massive, and Harvard. Our intent was to do them all, but we ran out of
time. Oddly enough we only experienced electrical activity on Evans and
Uncompahgre. On Umcompahgre we saw a teen get struck and killed. He was
fascinated by his long hair standing straight out from his head. We yelled
at him to get the *%&$*& off the peak, but he just ignored us. We did
Gray's and Torrey's in the snow, same day as most folks do. I was a pro ski
patrolman at Breckenridge at the time, and part of our training was
mountaineering, which included climbing and skiing crud in untouched
snowfields. We climbed three Fourteeners to their peaks during our
training.

When were you there? Or do you still live in CO?

Max


I was posted to Colorado Springs (Peterson AFB and Cheyenne Mnt) from
1999 to 2002. We took up Fourteeners for summer fun and skied in the
winter. We had Buddy Passes for Breck, Arapahoe and Keystone each year
we were there. We climbed many of the same mountains, Elbert, Evans
(three together near Evans I think), Gray's and Torrey's, Princeton,
Pike's (many times), Lindsay and others I can't remember.

I live in Victoria Canada now.

Gaz

"Gary" wrote in message
news:8krqf.49519$2k.18970@pd7tw1no...
Maxprop wrote:


I had a similar experience on top of Pike's Peak. But after the bolt of
lightening there was one guy dead. There is a place up on Pike's called
the Devils Playground where you can watch the electrical activity jump
from rock to rock.

Are you a Fourteener bagger? My wife and I have climbed about 15 of
them. Most had significant electrical activity and we always try to be on
our way down well before noon.


We did 32 Fourteeners before moving out of Colorado, including Elbert,
Massive, and Harvard. Our intent was to do them all, but we ran out of
time. Oddly enough we only experienced electrical activity on Evans and
Uncompahgre. On Umcompahgre we saw a teen get struck and killed. He was
fascinated by his long hair standing straight out from his head. We
yelled at him to get the *%&$*& off the peak, but he just ignored us. We
did Gray's and Torrey's in the snow, same day as most folks do. I was a
pro ski patrolman at Breckenridge at the time, and part of our training
was mountaineering, which included climbing and skiing crud in untouched
snowfields. We climbed three Fourteeners to their peaks during our
training.

When were you there? Or do you still live in CO?

Max
I was posted to Colorado Springs (Peterson AFB and Cheyenne Mnt) from 1999
to 2002. We took up Fourteeners for summer fun and skied in the winter.
We had Buddy Passes for Breck, Arapahoe and Keystone each year we were
there. We climbed many of the same mountains, Elbert, Evans (three
together near Evans I think), Gray's and Torrey's, Princeton, Pike's (many
times), Lindsay and others I can't remember.

I live in Victoria Canada now.

BC is a beautiful place, but I sure miss the Colorado Rockies. We go back
every other year to either ski or do some summer climbing. The mountain
real estate is exploding so rapidly as to boggle the mind. It's very
disturbing to those of us who spent the relatively undeveloped mid-70s
there.

Another quick Mt. Evans story: In a four hour segment on Evans we
experienced temperatures ranging from a high of 78 to a low of 28. We were
climbing in shorts, without shirts, and less than two hours later had
experienced torrential rain, winds in excess of 50kts. and eventually snow.
Ya gotta love the mountains.

Max

Maxprop wrote:
"Gary" wrote in message
news:8krqf.49519$2k.18970@pd7tw1no...

Maxprop wrote:


I had a similar experience on top of Pike's Peak. But after the bolt of
lightening there was one guy dead. There is a place up on Pike's called
the Devils Playground where you can watch the electrical activity jump

from rock to rock.

Are you a Fourteener bagger? My wife and I have climbed about 15 of
them. Most had significant electrical activity and we always try to be on
our way down well before noon.


We did 32 Fourteeners before moving out of Colorado, including Elbert,
Massive, and Harvard. Our intent was to do them all, but we ran out of
time. Oddly enough we only experienced electrical activity on Evans and
Uncompahgre. On Umcompahgre we saw a teen get struck and killed. He was
fascinated by his long hair standing straight out from his head. We
yelled at him to get the *%&$*& off the peak, but he just ignored us. We
did Gray's and Torrey's in the snow, same day as most folks do. I was a
pro ski patrolman at Breckenridge at the time, and part of our training
was mountaineering, which included climbing and skiing crud in untouched
snowfields. We climbed three Fourteeners to their peaks during our
training.

When were you there? Or do you still live in CO?

Max

I was posted to Colorado Springs (Peterson AFB and Cheyenne Mnt) from 1999
to 2002. We took up Fourteeners for summer fun and skied in the winter.
We had Buddy Passes for Breck, Arapahoe and Keystone each year we were
there. We climbed many of the same mountains, Elbert, Evans (three
together near Evans I think), Gray's and Torrey's, Princeton, Pike's (many
times), Lindsay and others I can't remember.

I live in Victoria Canada now.


BC is a beautiful place, but I sure miss the Colorado Rockies. We go back
every other year to either ski or do some summer climbing. The mountain
real estate is exploding so rapidly as to boggle the mind. It's very
disturbing to those of us who spent the relatively undeveloped mid-70s
there.

Another quick Mt. Evans story: In a four hour segment on Evans we
experienced temperatures ranging from a high of 78 to a low of 28. We were
climbing in shorts, without shirts, and less than two hours later had
experienced torrential rain, winds in excess of 50kts. and eventually snow.
Ya gotta love the mountains.

Max


I had an experience similar to that on Elbert when fall climbing with my
sons and a storm came in quickly. Vis was very poor and I was a bit
stressed with my two sons with me.

"Maxprop" wrote in message
We did 32 Fourteeners before moving out of Colorado, including Elbert,
Massive, and Harvard. Our intent was to do them all, but we ran out of
time. Oddly enough we only experienced electrical activity on Evans and
Uncompahgre. On Umcompahgre we saw a teen get struck and killed. He was
fascinated by his long hair standing straight out from his head. We
yelled
at him to get the *%&$*& off the peak, but he just ignored us. We did
Gray's and Torrey's in the snow, same day as most folks do. I was a pro
ski
patrolman at Breckenridge at the time, and part of our training was
mountaineering, which included climbing and skiing crud in untouched
snowfields. We climbed three Fourteeners to their peaks during our
training.

Have you skied Quandary?

Amen!

Bob Crantz wrote:
"Maxprop" wrote in message

We did 32 Fourteeners before moving out of Colorado, including Elbert,
Massive, and Harvard. Our intent was to do them all, but we ran out of
time. Oddly enough we only experienced electrical activity on Evans and
Uncompahgre. On Umcompahgre we saw a teen get struck and killed. He was
fascinated by his long hair standing straight out from his head. We

yelled

at him to get the *%&$*& off the peak, but he just ignored us. We did
Gray's and Torrey's in the snow, same day as most folks do. I was a pro

ski

patrolman at Breckenridge at the time, and part of our training was
mountaineering, which included climbing and skiing crud in untouched
snowfields. We climbed three Fourteeners to their peaks during our
training.


Have you skied Quandary?

Amen!


I climbed Quandary. That's the one right beside Breck, right. I didn't
ski it though. Summer climb.

Gaz

"Gary" wrote in message
news:Uizqf.161257$ki.137943@pd7tw2no...
Bob Crantz wrote:
"Maxprop" wrote in message

We did 32 Fourteeners before moving out of Colorado, including Elbert,
Massive, and Harvard. Our intent was to do them all, but we ran out of
time. Oddly enough we only experienced electrical activity on Evans and
Uncompahgre. On Umcompahgre we saw a teen get struck and killed. He was
fascinated by his long hair standing straight out from his head. We

yelled

at him to get the *%&$*& off the peak, but he just ignored us. We did
Gray's and Torrey's in the snow, same day as most folks do. I was a pro

ski

patrolman at Breckenridge at the time, and part of our training was
mountaineering, which included climbing and skiing crud in untouched
snowfields. We climbed three Fourteeners to their peaks during our
training.


Have you skied Quandary?

Amen!


I climbed Quandary. That's the one right beside Breck, right. I didn't
ski it though. Summer climb.

Same here. I don't recall anyone skiing it back then, at least no one I
knew. Today however there is almost no limit to what folks will try. The
accessible approaches to Quandary's summit are seriously steep, IIRC. It's
been a while.

Max