Summit Camping and Lightning!

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creidinger
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Re: Summit Camping and Lightning!

Post by creidinger »

Jim Davies wrote:The damage to his tent sounds like the metal in the poles might have been sparking (aka St Elmo's Fire), rather than a direct strike. Burning through nylon doesn't require a jillion volts, a spark from a campfire is quite sufficient. :)

The video does say that the rocks were glowing and there were electrical leaders coming up, prior to the direct strike. I would think a direct strike would have nearly obliterated his tent.
"GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places." Habakkuk 3:19
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coloradokevin
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Re: Summit Camping and Lightning!

Post by coloradokevin »

Back when I climbed my first 14'er, I also had the wild idea that it would be great to camp on the summit of all of them. Then, during the course of my hiking career I had a few close calls with lightning. Now that idea doesn't seem so great.
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BAUMGARA
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Re: Summit Camping and Lightning!

Post by BAUMGARA »

I approve
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myfeetrock
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Re: Summit Camping and Lightning!

Post by myfeetrock »

You people lacking the spirit of adventure have no idea what it means to live. If I had the time to sleep on the summit of all the 14ers I would be there to.
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[jon]
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Re: Summit Camping and Lightning!

Post by [jon] »

Stupidity would be the lack of knowledge about the risk of lightning, not the choice to live his life the way he wants to, and accomplish the things he wants to. Obviously he knows of the risks of lightning. For someone to camp on the summit of every 14er that risk is weighed against numerous other factors. Obviously he made the decision that it's worth the risk. And any one that criticizes him for being stupid has also made that decision.

How many people die on Mt. Everest every year? They have also weighed the risk vs. the reward. Sometimes the difference between success and a fatal mistake is so minute that it can't be measured, and sometimes the mistake can't even be found.

Just my 2 cents...
The journey of a thousand miles starts with one foot step - Lao Tzu
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edhaman
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Re: Summit Camping and Lightning!

Post by edhaman »

Just a couple of thoughts: (1) I think we all suffer, to some degree, from the "it won't happen to me" syndrome; and (2) it was Kedrowski, not dubsho3000, who first brought up "belief systems" by mentioning his superstition about what happened.
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14erFred
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Re: Summit Camping and Lightning!

Post by 14erFred »

myfeetrock wrote:You people lacking the spirit of adventure have no idea what it means to live. If I had the time to sleep on the summit of all the 14ers I would be there to.
Real adventure is not something you have time for, it's something for which you find the time.
"Live as on a mountain." -- Marcus Aurelius
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myfeetrock
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Re: Summit Camping and Lightning!

Post by myfeetrock »

Whatever! You get what I ment.
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sevenvii
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Re: Summit Camping and Lightning!

Post by sevenvii »

myfeetrock wrote:You people lacking the spirit of adventure have no idea what it means to live. If I had the time to sleep on the summit of all the 14ers I would be there to.

I think thats going a little far. Maybe that is what you would qualify as what it means to live but just because some would choose to not want to sleep on the summit of every 14er doesnt mean they arent out there "living". If that were the case I could say this guy doesnt know what it means to live, unless he is bivying on a port a ledge on 5000ft walls with only a single cam holding him while dancing the macarena naked.
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14erFred
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Re: Summit Camping and Lightning!

Post by 14erFred »

What is "adventure?"

Adventure is just bad planning. -- Roald Amundsen

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered. -- Gilbert K. Chesterton

It’s when you’re safe at home that you wish you were having an adventure. When you’re having an adventure you wish you were safe at home. -- Alfred North Whitehead

For an occurrence to become an adventure, it is necessary and sufficient for one to recount it. -- Jean-Paul Sartre

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. -- Helen Keller

There is no certainty; there is only adventure. -- Roberto Assagioli

Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go. -- T.S Eliot

There are two kinds of adventurers: those who go truly hoping to find adventure and those who go secretly hoping they won't. -- William Trogdon

What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy. And joy is, after all, the end of life. We do not live to eat and make money. -- George Leigh Mallory

Believe me! The secret of reaping the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from life is to live dangerously! -- Friedrich Nietzsche

Without adventure civilization is in full decay. -- Alfred North Whitehead

If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room. -- Jim Whittaker :)
"Live as on a mountain." -- Marcus Aurelius
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Johnson
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Re: Summit Camping and Lightning!

Post by Johnson »

I believe he is teamed up with partner that is a meteorologist. No? If so, he has an excellent partner for planning for best conditions.
In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. - Psalm 95:4

"I would be doing myself a disservice and every member of this band if I didn't perform the hell out of this." - Gene
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mountain_man
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Re: Summit Camping and Lightning!

Post by mountain_man »

Johnson wrote:I believe he is teamed up with partner that is a meteorologist. No? If so, he has an excellent partner for planning for best conditions.
You're right, he is. I saw his partner speak at REI a week or to ago about mountain weather.
"To live and not to breathe is to die in tragedy." - Billie Joe Armstrong
"What I know I could put into a pack as if it were bread and cheese, and carry it on one shoulder, important and honorable, but so small! While everything else continues, unexplained, and unexplainable." - Mary Oliver
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