Originally Posted By: Hikin_Jim

The advice I've heard for hikers is:
1) Stay the heck off of the heights in a thunderstorm. Plan your hike such that you start early enough to be off the heights before noon. Thunderstorm activity tends to be at its highest in the afternoon.
2) Don't take cover under an isolated tree. An isolated tree is a target for lightning. Take cover in a grove of trees, preferably a grove that has trees of a relatively uniform height.
3) Don't shelter under rocks or in shallow caves. Rocks and caves can intensify the lightning.
4) Spread your group out so that a lightning strike won't affect everyone simultaneously. If one person is hurt, the remaining members of the group can render aid. CPR skills would be very helpful if someone were to be struck by lightning but not killed outright.
5) Sit on top of your pack. Let no part of you touch the ground if you can avoid it.

That's the standard advice I've heard. Anyone else have tips?
HJ


Here are a few I learned over the years.

- If you have trekking poles (aluminum or carbon fiber) ditch them at least 50 feet away and do NOT leave them standing and upright in the ground and also ensure that the poles ends are not directly facing you.

- If on a mountain bike, drop it and get at least 50' away from it
.
- Ditch (if possible) any type of mountain climbing gear. This not practical if your climbing out on face of a cliff that you cannot readily get down off the cliff face.

- Sitting on a backpack that has any type of fuel stored in it is NOT recommended....self explanatory.
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Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.

John Lubbock