Walking Forum
Regions - Trip reports, destination advice, recommended routes, etc. => Lake District => Topic started by: dinger on 10:42:28, 03/11/16
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I was thinking of doing Helm crag, Gibson Knott tomorrow but looking at mountain forecast it predicts slight chance of lightning.
Would you guys risk it or would you not take the risk?
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Was about to post a reply but saw that you original post was on the 3rd. Hopefully you survived!
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Hi Dave. No change of plan a did a local walk near me in the penines, I had my 11 year old daughter so didn't think it would of been wise not too really.
Anyway what would have been your reply just curios for future reference?
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Personally, I would have gone given that the risk of lightning was quite low. That said, I would have been well aware of potential escape routes along the route, even if that means dashing down the fellside.
Still, no shame in choosing to do something else!
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I choose not to go out when there's a chance of lightening, no matter how small.
There was a discussion about this a while back, and this is what I posted about my hair standing up on end, without realising how much danger I was in. Here's a link to the original post:
http://www.walkingforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=30271.0 (http://www.walkingforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=30271.0)
After my lucky escape I did a lot of reading on what to do in a thunder/lightning storm and came across this article on Wildbackpacker which is very good and answers your question about sharp pointy metal objects. It also mentions Positive Streamers, which is what happened to us.
http://www.wildbackpacker.com/wilderness-survival/articles/surviving-a-lightning-storm/ (http://www.wildbackpacker.com/wilderness-survival/articles/surviving-a-lightning-storm/)
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Wildpackers quite a intresting read, I thought you have to stayaway from trees completely because I thought it can travel down the trees and so many metres along the ground from the tree, I maybe wrong but thought I read that somewhere else.