Flav wrote on Aug 30
th, 2017 at 12:31pm:
I've walked under thunderstorms, with a big pointy thing sticking out of my backpack ( read : an Icepick ), I've rock climbed under thunderstorms ( again with a big pointy thing sticking out of the backpack )... I've taken refuge from a thunderstorm ( because it flooded the tents ) in an old abandonned Eletrical transformer Station that had it's roof partially broken.... and more ...
There's just a few rules to follow : don't stay under trees, don't stay on the ridges, the crests or the summits, don't stay in the path that water will folow, and make fucking sure you don't stay in the path of ground currents. ( that last one is usually the killer, as shown in a video that went viral this week you can stand a few feet from a strike without any consequences, as long as you're not in the path of the ground currents. ( what saved the guy in the video was the floor he was on... ))
I played Little League baseball as a kid. The parks we played in were almost all surrounded by woods. One game was called due to weather, and while walking/running out to the parking lot I recall being blinded for a good minute by a close by lightning strike. Probably the closest I've come to being struck by lightning, but it is a memory that always reminds me of the random nature of life and death. A car crash, a lightning strike, a fall from 4 feet where you strike your head on the pavement. Things that most people live through, and many experience in their lives, but some people just die in for no particular reason other than poor luck.
Planning can help, a little. I had an Uncle who would play a quiz game with me with scenarios where the wrong choice was always "You died in a flash flood" or "You died of exposure" or "You died because you fell down a cliff and broke your leg and no one else had the keys to the car to go for help." Situations that almost no one ever faces, but also situations that are fairly easy to avoid if you are just aware of the dangers. How inexpensive is it to have a second set of car keys cut and to hand them to someone else you are hiking with? $3? Is saving $3 ever worth your life or that of someone else?