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Posted
2 hours ago, crash_davis said:

This happened 2 weekends back. I've been following this story because I drove back from Pagosa Springs to Austin on Fri, Sep 12. We were driving 84 through Chama at about 3PM and drove through the storm which hit that area. It was crazy windy and lightning everywhere. We left PS 1 day before we planned because the storms were bad Thu night and that Fri. Basically that whole week they were just rolling through southern Colorado.

They were seasoned hunters bow hunting for elk. Apparently they were at the base of the tree and got struck by lightning. 

They were found 2 miles from this trailhead.

https://www.hikingproject.com/trail/7059034/los-pinos-trail-736

 

Getting struck by lightning and getting eaten by bears are my huge irrational fears when I'm hiking in the mountains. This isn't going to help my bitchassed pussiness about getting struck by lightning in the mountains.

https://coloradosun.com/2025/09/22/hunters-found-dead-victims-of-lightning-strike/

Two elk hunters found dead in southern Colorado after a massive search were the victims of a lightning strike, authorities confirmed Monday.

Conejos County Coroner Richard Martin, speaking to The Colorado Sun, confirmed Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko were killed by lightning while hunting southwest of Monte Vista. 

The hunters were found below a tree and had slight burns on their bodies, Martin said. 

“A slight burn is like if you take a match and stick it on your arm,” he said. “And there were only two or three of them,” he said. 

He said the hunters’ deaths were likely instantaneous, but he could not confirm the exact time of death.

“That kind of death is just instant. It’s like you’re alive and now you’re not,” Martin said. “Just that quick. Split second.” 

Bridget Murphy, Porter’s fiancée, said Porter and Stasko were both experienced outdoorsmen who got caught in a storm likely on Sept. 12. 

“It is OFFICIAL, that a lightning strike to the ground took them in an instant. They didn’t do anything wrong, they didn’t feel fear or pain,” Murphy wrote in a Facebook post. “He was just trying to get back to the car as storms rolled in on Friday – September 12. It was out of everyone’s hands, and I am so grateful we found them so they can be at peace. He was an experienced outdoorsman, who was in the wrong spot at the wrong time.”

Been following that one since they went missing.  Lightning is a motherfucker.

Posted

I got caught in a storm on the PCT above Lake Tahoe last year. Fairly terrifying, but I did my best to get to lower ground, ditch any metal, and insulate myself. The thing that bothered me the most was actually the massive temperature drop. Went from 80 to probably 45 in a matter of minutes. I probably looked ridiculous doing a dance in place on my sit pad trying to keep warm while the storm passed overhead. 

Posted
Quote

The odds of getting struck are 1 in 1.2 million in a given year and 1 in 15,300 in a lifetime, the weather service estimates. 

That's a pretty wild statistic from that story. 1 in 15k chance of being struck by lightning over a lifetime? That's not exactly super rare. 

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