On my first summit of Whitney, I was hiking down in a worsening lightning storm. It started to really blow and pour. The rocks were tingling, and the hail was coming down hard. I thought I might die from hypothermia! Along the way, with nearby lightning strikes, I faintly recall a glowing pinnacle. Bathed in a strange light, I wish I could have taken pictures. I think I was out of film, but had no rain protection. I had my life to worry about! I thought at the time, yes, St. Elmo's Fire, maybe. I never saw St. Elmo's Fire, ever before, so I don't know if this was it.
But then, I saw a large rock skidding down along the Palisade Glacier. It apparently fell off it's snow pedestal, and gravity carried it down the ice. An amazing sight! I was shooting a time lapse movie of the clouds, so I didn't want to interrupt my scene. I learned later that this was a rare event.
Snow doughnuts forming is another sight I witnessed, but didn't record. A width of wet snow slides by gravity, then curls up into a ball, starts rolling, then loops over itself to pick up more snow, and then become a "doughnut." As this is all memory, I can't describe it better, exactly. You may see this when ski touring in the Northern Sierra. I've only run across this phenomena twice.
Also, I know St. Elmo's Fire only from a Hollywood movie depiction (Mutiny on the Bounty?).
