You're at 11,000 feet on a granite ridge in Colorado. You watched the sky build all morning, but you wanted the summit. Now it's 1:30pm, the cumulus is anvil-topped, and you can hear thunder. This is one of the most common life-threatening situations in American backcountry. The good news: it's almost entirely survivable if you do the right things in the right order.
The 30-30 rule
If the time between a lightning flash and its thunder is 30 seconds or less, the storm is within 6 miles — close enough that you're at risk. After the last close strike, wait 30 minutes before resuming normal activity. The 30-30 rule is the simplest framework.
The action sequence
1. Get off the high ground (immediately)
The single highest priority. Lightning preferentially strikes the highest objects in an area. Ridges, summits, isolated trees, rocky points — get off them. Drop elevation. Lose 1,000 feet if you can. Move now, not after the next picture.
2. Get away from isolated tall objects
That single tall pine in the meadow? It's a lightning rod. Same with isolated rock outcrops, transmission towers, lone hill features. Get to the lower, broader, varied terrain.
3. Get away from water
Lakes and rivers are conductive. Get out of and away from open water — at least 100 feet from a lake edge or river bank.
4. Get away from metal
Drop your trekking poles, ice axe, metal-frame backpack stays. Move 30 feet from them. Conductive metal can carry ground current to you.
5. Take the lightning position
If you're in the open and a strike feels imminent (hair standing up, ozone smell, blue glow on metal): squat on the balls of your feet, knees together, hands covering ears, head tucked. Touching the ground only with your feet, in as small a footprint as possible. The goal is to minimize ground current paths through your body.
6. Spread the group out
If your group is in lightning danger, separate at least 50 feet apart. If lightning strikes one person, others can do CPR — and people in close groups can be killed simultaneously by ground current.
If someone is struck
- Strike victims do not retain electricity. It's safe to touch them immediately.
- Most lightning fatalities are from cardiac arrest. Begin CPR immediately. Continue until help arrives or you cannot continue.
- Keep the victim warm. Lightning strikes can cause hypothermia from systemic shock.
- Call for evacuation. Use a PLB or satellite messenger. Cell phones rarely work above treeline.
The mountain will be there next weekend. The summit doesn't matter. Get down.
The prevention is the protocol
The single best thing you can do is plan around afternoon thunderstorms in summer. In the western US, summer mountain weather is reliably:
- Clear at sunrise
- Clouds building 11am
- Cumulus piling up 12-1pm
- Thunder and lightning 2-4pm
- Clearing by evening
Plan to be off ridges and summits by noon. If you're not down by 1pm, you're playing odds.
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