Hi All,
This is my first post on summitpost and I thought I would share my experience from our Mt. Williamson/Tyndall peak expedition this last weekend. Thunderstorms approached during our attempt of Williamson. So half of our party abandoned the attempt (myself included). We were climbing out of the Williamson bowl when this particular thunderstorm rolled in. As we were traversing out of the bowl I felt a little static and heard a "buzz" sound from my neck which was pretty unnerving. I thought that we would be safer in the bowl than approaching the summit. However, I neglected to take into account that water conducts electricity, so being surrounded by four lakes was not the ideal place to be. Then, while on the plateau heading back to camp at Shepherd's pass, the storm moved in right above us. The thunder was so loud and deafening it shook me to my core each time it roared. I witnessed lightening strike not more than 200-250 yards in front of me. The hail and wind picked up such that it was pelting our faces horizontally and it stung. Thankfully my GPS was working because I had become a little disoriented what with the thunder, lightening, hail, and cloud cover masking the nearby mountains and geographical features. Once we did make it back to camp we took shelter in the tent and hoped that it would hold up through the wind and hail. Meanwhile I boiled water and covered my hiking partner with two sleeping bags who was shivering and approaching hypothermia.
Thankfully our tent held up as we awaited word from the rest of our party They did return safely several hours later and reported that they had successfully reached the summit. They said there was a brief break in the weather while on the summit but it was quite scary having to down-climb in these conditions.
The below pictures were taken ten minutes apart looking down into the bowl.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzObEeen6tA[/youtube]
Although we did not get to summit on this trip, I'm glad no one was injured or hurt, and we'll try again next year. Live to climb another day!
-Bill