Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Lightning lesson

Because of its scientific significance in the early 1900s, the Smithsonian Institution Shelter on Mt. Whitney's summit is now in the National Register of Historic Places. See <a href="http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/CA/Tulare/vacant.html">hut info</a>

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First of all, kudos to Bob R. Your wisdom and experience, and the great willingness to share them, is much appreciated. Also, your rescue efforts are noteworthy as well. I'm sure such accolades embarrass you, but it needs to be said.
I've been hiking these mountains for over four decades and I hope someday to share a trail with you and hear some of those first-hand tales.
Next, I remember arriving at the ranger station the day pr two after the accident in 1990 and there was a 24 hour loop tape being played outside, warning people about the dangers of lightning and seeking refuge in the hut.
Speaking with backcountry rangers over the years, it is breathtaking what people will do in storm conditions. I'm in awe of the degree of reckless abandon that is displayed.
And then, Bob and his fellow heroes have to come and try to save them.

FWIW, my last post was in reply to Rob's. I don't know how mine got positioned earlier. But who cares?

Cessna, I know it's dangerous to go too far in applying reason to legal questions, but it seems obvious to me that a hut on a mountaintop should provide protection from lightning and equally obvious that forests burn. (IMHO) The hut *in the past* was irresponsibly maintained but no one can fireproof a forest. So, you should be able to sue for one and not the other.

AlanK-

what ever happened to taking personal responsibility for your actions. If you have the poor judgment to stay on top of a big mountain in a lightning storm, you are resposible for what heppens to you, not the people who put up a hut as an emergency resource to be used at your own risk. If we apply your logic to the ultimate extreme, Whitney would be closed to climbing because the NPS can't maintain it in a way that it will be completely safe. People die on Whitney every year or two and it is them exercising their personal freedom and responsibility. Just because a lawyer finds a way to sue and win does not make it right.

Sam, I suspect that we'd generally be in agreement about personal responsibility. For example, if fall off of Whitney and break every bone in my body, I (or my survivors) should not be able to sue the government for failing to erect barriers.

In the case of the hut, I don't think that it would be unreasonable for a guy in 1990 to think he was safer in the hut than rushing down ahead of a storm. The hut should have provided protection because that is what such structures are generally expected to do. And that is what I think it would do today.

BTW, if someone takes shelter in the hut and dies because he is touching the roof, holding on to the stove, or sticking his unbrella out the window, he should be judged at fault. Same thing at home. If your lightning rod fails, you can sue. If you get zapped because you are repairing your copper plumbing in a storm, it's your fault.

I hope that Whitney is never made completely safe, because the only way to do that would be to bulldoze it.

One last point and then I will shut up. I don't have the numbers, but I'm reasonably sure that the hut has saved more lives than it has killed.

I shivered through an uncomfortable night in there myself, on my very first trip as a dumb teenager. It was in May, with the top still in winter conditions, and I had arrived on the summit at 9 PM - clearly too late to descend. It was an intended day climb and I was wearing summer clothes and street shoes. (I told you I was dumb!)

I ended up with a little bit of frostbite on my toes, nose and ears. Don't know how I would have faired if I had spent the night in the open.

July 14, 1990. I was unsuccessful in gaing a permit to hike Mt. Whitney that day so instead I was standing on top of Telescope Peak. I watched in amazement as the fierce, black, aggressive stormfront moved in on Whitney. It was a stunning sight. I was on a warm, bright peak and to see those storm clouds swirling toward Whitney was something I'll never forget. A couple of days later my hiking partner and I learned of the fate of those hikers who were successful in gaing permits that day.

By the way, I also heard that the brother of the lightning victim returned the following year to place a memorial to his brother. As he was driving back down from Whitney Portal he drove off the road on one of the hairpin turns and was injured. Does anyone know if this is true?

The most telling part of the story is that this was Judge Rea. I have been involved in a couple of civil cases in his court. In both cases which I remember, there may have been more, if we were in anyone elses court, we would have tried them. Judge Rea is very plaintiff oriented. Federal Judges have an incredible amount of control in what testimony and evidence will be allowed to be heard by the jury. He tends to present his opinions as to how he will control the testimony in his responses to motions pre-trial.

What is more troubling is that the California legislature is trying to erode the Doctrine of Assumption of Risk. The case Knight vs. ***ett in a nutshell says that if you participate in a particularly risky activity, you assume the risk of injury and if injured, are barred from recovery.

This is an area of law under assault. Mammoth Mt. won a great case, I think in 2002 concerning an injury to a minor on a ski lift. The parent had signed a release for ski lessons. I forget the details, however the conclusion was that the parent was aware of the risk and released the ski area from liability. Snow Summit however lost a case in which I think a fellow lost control in an icy are and was badly injured. I think the problem the ski area had was they had notice of the ice and ignored it. Ice? No area in California has ice like some of the ice I skied on in Maine in the seventies. I skied some stuff back then which would have been good to practice front pointing on

There is a memorial plaque placed on the summit but I don't recall if the name matches the person killed by the lightning. Going from memory, I'd guesstimate the location of the plaque to be directly SE of the big Mt Whitney plaque, all the way to the edge of the plateau. It's just over what us trail bound people call the 'edge.'

I don't have anything to add to this sad story, but it's obviously relevant to this thread.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/2379641/detail.

Colorado Climber Dies In Fall On Peak
Springs Man Rushing Down To Avoid Lightning

POSTED: 11:21 a.m. MDT August 4, 2003
UPDATED: 1:43 p.m. MDT August 4, 2003
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- A Colorado Springs man fell 500 feet to his death while scrambling to get down a 14,000-foot peak during a weekend thunderstorm, relatives said.

John Boyles, 52, was hurrying down Little Bear Peak near Alamosa, Colo., when he made a wrong turn down an avalanche chute and slipped on loose rocks, said his son, Aaron, who was hiking with him.

"Lightning struck about 100 feet from us," said Aaron, 20. "We were trying to get off the mountain as fast as we could."

...

A question in another thread tickled my memory, so I did a quick search and found this old topic. MJJ asked about the memorial plaque, two posts above. Well, I remembered I once photographed a plaque near the toilet, so looked again at the picture. It's for a Matthew James Monroe, not Matt Nordbrock. (But this may not be the plaque MJJ refers to.)

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By the way, China Lake MRG was doing the Mt. Whitney SAR duties pretty exclusively back then, and our records do not show an operation for this person on or slightly after May 20, 1977. So he probably died elsewhere, but Mt. Whitney was special to him so his parents placed the plaque here. I have looked for it a number of times in the last dozen years or so, without success. I think it has been removed.