JD wrote:That's definitely the most impressive one.
When it started, we were just leaving the summit of Rainier. The skies were clear all round the mountain, but there was a cloud cap over the summit. My first thought that I was getting stung across my entire back by a swarm of bees, but then I quickly realized: "There are no bees on the summit of Rainier." The metal stays in my backpack were zapping me.
Then my ice axe and glasses started humming loudly and I knew we were in deep doo-doo. Then lightning hit, with a simultaneous thunder clap. It was so powerful that it shook my bones. We dumped all of our metal, ran about 100 feet away and lay in the snow a rope length apart. The next 20 minutes were pretty terrifying. The electricity would build and build and build - felt like you getting stung all over by bees. Then - BANG! A lightning bolt would fly right over your head, and the stinging would stop briefly. Seems like there was a lightning strike about every 20 seconds for 20 minutes.
On those moments of reprieve I lifted my head from the snow and looked over at my brother with a thumbs up - "I'm still alive, how about you?"
On yeah, forgot to mention, a blizzard started with the lightning, it snowed about 6 inches in those 20 minutes.