Electricity On Little Bear (Roll over Ben Franklin)

[davidnr]

I have a history of experiencing sudden weather changes on difficult peaks. Hail, lightning and buzzing hiking poles on the Knife's Edge on my descent from Capitol. Six inxches of hail on the way off the saddle on South Maroon. And 5 hours of rain and intermittent thunder and lightning from the ledges to the parking lot on Longs(my first 14er).

I climbed Little Bear last week and had the weirdest (scariest) experience yet.

A few hundred feet from the summit the clouds came in super fast and you could feel the electricty in the air. Then I suddenly experienced a shock inside my helmet. The only thing I can compare it to is the feeling you get when someone with those novelty electric buzzers shakes your hand. Needless to say I was pretty freaked. I hunkered down and a minute later there was a much less intense repeat. The weather cleared up a bit a few minutes later. I touched the top and climbed down in sunny weather.

Crazy!

[Wentzl]

I had a similar experience on the summit of Mt. Sneffels. A snow squall blew and in about 30 seconds the day went from calm to frantic. There was an immediate charge to the air and both my girlfriend and I felt like we were being shocked on our heads and back. It was painful, more painful than being caught in a hail storm, but not quite as bad as bee stings. We descended from the summit to the Lavender Col in about 6 minutes flat. The shocking sensation followed us about half way down. There never was any thunder. Just a mad static charge in the air.

On the topic of strange electrical experences, I have also experienced several times where I would see a spark shoot from my finger tips then pointed to the sky. Unlike the painful shocks you described, these were without any sensation at all, other than visual. Pretty cool stuff.

[Monster5]

I've never been sparked on a peak despite sitting up high through some pretty intense storms for whatever reason. I was sparked on top of Castleton Tower right before starting the north face raps. It's a bit interesting hearing the rocks hiss and pop on top of a tower.

[Scott P]

A few hundred feet from the summit the clouds came in super fast and you could feel the electricty in the air. Then I suddenly experienced a shock inside my helmet.

It has happened to me twice, both time in the Uinta Mountains.

The first time (July 1987), on Kings Peak my brother and I got shocked, but my dad would get shocked a lot more since he had a metal frame backpack. He threw it down because it was was shocking him and he couldn't pick it up.

The second time (August 1991) I was working at the East Fork Bear River Scout Camp and we were on a backpack and camped below timberline on a ridge when a huge lightning storm came in. Lightning hit a tree near our camp and everyone got shocked. The same lightning storm hit the main camp and hit the lifeguard tower, knocking the lifeguard unconscious. The same storm also moved east and hit another scout troop camped at Island Lake. Over there it started hailing and some scouts ran to a pine tree for cover. Lighting hit the tree and killed two of them:

http://www.upi.com/Archives/1991/08/04/ ... 681278400/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[thurs]

To the OP and the replier immediately after -- how did the clouds look in this situation? Was this associated with billowing cumulus?

[davidnr]

No they were not. it was more like an overall haze that moved in fast very fast.

[Wentzl]

No they were not. it was more like an overall haze that moved in fast very fast.

likewise. High, non threatening gray overcast. Verga here and there around the horizon. Then one of those cloudbursts bring in a snow squall changing the day in very short order. By the way, the squall spent itself in about 20 minutes and calm wind and broken overcast sky for the rest of the day.

[HikerGuy]

I think this phenomenon is called graupel electrification. During the summer, this occurs at much higher altitudes in building thunderstorms. Now that it is cooler, this process can occur nearer the surface. Daytime heating creates enough lift over mountain ridges and ice crystals bounce off one another in the process shearing off electrons and creating a charge.

[MNBW]

No they were not. it was more like an overall haze that moved in fast very fast.

The same thing occurred early on June 13th on Quandary Peak. My daughter and I were caught in a fast moving, short lived squall. The wind driven razor blade graupel sucked but the buzzing in my hat and my daughters hair standing on end were signs of something worse. No lightning and only a couple distant claps of thunder and it all passed quickly. Clear blue sky prior and clear blue sky after. Having never experienced that before I felt we were very lucky.

[nita+leland]

Here's some ancient history that came to mind while I was reading this thread. I made my first climb in July, 1953, with a group of 12 students and guides from CU that summitted Mount Neva and Jasper Peak in one day (no equipment required). Black clouds rolled over the peak while we were up there, accompanied by hail, thunder, lightning. The guides made us flatten ourselves on the ground, covered by our ponchos. To my knowledge, no one was affected by the electrical charge, but after the storm, we got another unexpected surprise when our guides made us grab a rope and leap off the peak to glissade down the snow field below. I morphed from college sophomore into Wonder Woman that day.

[Monte Meals]

"The guides made us flatten ourselves on the ground, covered by our ponchos....

... I morphed from college sophomore into Wonder Woman that day."

Inquiring minds want to know --- How many under each poncho ?

[gonefishing05]

i try to get out to CO at least 1 a year (typically twice though) for climbing and this is my biggest fear. ive been having more technical goals in the recent past and i always fear getting stuck halfway up a 6-10 pitch route when the weather rolls in. i follow the down by noon mentality. ive tried reading books on reading mountain weather, but only practicing these skills 3-4 times a year makes it difficult to master. the weather is just so different outside of the mountains, despite having similar clouds.

a buddy and i climbed lone eagle peak a couple months ago and the whole time i was just praying the weather stayed solid.