[philmont] Baldy Porch Talk - Lightning Safety.

 I'm really bad for remembering the name of the camp we were at in 2002, but Dan who monitors this site will surely remember what camp this was.

We were in a layover camp and had gone down to the chow wagon. I won't get into the disappointment to the generic cans of "Dinty More stew"? but this chow wagon gave a chance to eat as a crew and relax with the other crews and advisors as we didn't have a sister crew.

During clean up a storm came in, most crews just left leaving the staff to finish clean up. We offered to help the staff finish the clean up as quickly as possible so we all could leave. Before long and after a few thunder claps the lighting started. The Camp's Asst' Dir told us we could not stay under the wooden shelter and needed to go back to our camp....200 + yards or more away...most across an open field, up a hill and into the trees.

We tried to explain that we felt it was a greater risk to run across the open field during the thunder storm and then into a stand of trees where we were camped than to stay put. She continued to argue, when we asked if she knew the National's position of sever weather, she said it didn't matter, we couldn't stay there.

We disobeyed and stayed under a canvas fly about 15' from the wooded shelter the staff stayed under. We all crowed up on a wooden picnic table to stay off the soaking ground and away from the posts. Our crew being our crew began a round robin chorus of commercial jingles.

As the rain subsided, several staff members came and agreed to our response and actions and said the had camp's director been there he would have allowed us to stay under the wooden shelter with them.

The most unfortunate occurrence from the whole ordeal for us advisors, the crew kept singing the jiggles for the rest of the trek.

Brian Martin
0609-02
Lou., KY

-----Original Message-----
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To: philmont List Member <philmont@troop47.com>
Sent: Wed, 1 Aug 2007 6:49 am
Subject: [philmont] Baldy Porch Talk - Lightning Safety.

Summer of 2000 at Philmont Training Center my son and I were able to do a
Webelos overnighter in Rayado Canyon, a little upstream of the Kit Carson
Museum.? As we hiked in a storm was brewing over the mountains.? We
quickly set up the small orange pup tents, with aluminum poles.? The
Webelos counselors had us spread the tents around, and away from the cottonwood
trees along Rayado.? We were in a relatively flat area adjacent to a
meadow.? They advised we get into the tents and lay flat; they were too low
to squat inside.? As my son and I are enjoying the symphony of a Philmont
thunderstorm he reaches up to touch the tent.? I instructed him not to
touch the tent fabric as water would begin to leak through.? No sooner had
he put his arm down and my sentence completed then, flash-bang,
simultaneously.? He and I were thoroughly impressed by the power of the
thunderclap.? He commented that when his arm was raised he could feel a
tingle in his finger tips and wondered if it was the electrons going up to the
clouds preceding the lightning bolt (well informed for a Webelos 2).?
Closest call of our lives.? When we emerged from the tent after the storm
passed there was another father/son team coming out of a tent.? We were the
only remaining folks in the campsite.? Everyone else had vanished!? We
checked all the tents and there were no casualties, nor could we see where the
strike hit.? A little while later from way downstream we heard them yelling
for us to come to the Kit Carson Museum.? When the lightning struck they
all panicked and left their tents to run to the museum, including the counselors
(one of the two is an Eagle, the other a?female Venture).? The two of
us remaining dads are Eagles.? I still question why the others would risk
themselves and their sons by getting up and creating a taller profile for
lightning.? My son and I still marvel at our closeness to the lightning
that day.?

?

Any?thoughts on whether laying flat, and dry,?in a pup tent is
safer than crouching in the rain???

I know not to lay flat when in the storm while backpacking,?but we
didn't have packs, only duffel bags.

?

Our class had flag ceremony duty one evening and we opted to lower the
flags early due to an approaching storm.? Something about lowering flags on
tall metal poles made us all nervous, so we wanted to be well away from them
before the storm got anywhere nearby.? This was one of those rare east to
west storms.? We could see it coming for miles across the plains.

?

We returned last year and trekked to the Valle Vidal as 6-17-K3; this time
our tent had fiberglass poles.? This was when the Valle was being shut down
behind us due to extreme fire danger EVERYWHERE!? While at Whiteman Vega we
had a dry storm pass by.? One strike a mile and a half away started a fire,
but it was quickly attacked and contained by the US Forest Service.?
Lightning at Philmont is to be taken very seriously, as it should
everywhere.

?

In a message dated 7/31/2007 10:47:58 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
philmontjohn@yahoo.com writes:

  
I think it's safe to say that most of the people on this list saw the
  same thing I did in the sketchy information coming out of Sundays lightning
  strike.? Not that we are condemming others, but we all felt the same
  thing.? Something was amiss.

  
?

  
I feel sort of like we are all preaching to che choir on this subject as
  most have expressed virtually the same sentiment.? this list has a
  combined experience of probably several hundreds of years in the out of
  doors.

  
?

  
In Scouting as well as in the general out of doors, there are those who
  know and those who don't.? There are very few inbetween.? It is our
  responsibility to do our best to inform those who do not know, so I encourage
  you to try and keep on trying.

  
?

  
All of us have experienced those advisors?that we'd just as soon not
  be along due to their thin layer of knowledge and good decision making and
  more disasterously their inability to take positive suggestions.

  
?

  
BSA did a real good job on addressing the problem of pedophiles working
  with youth adn it would be a quantum leaf forward if they found a way to deal
  with these type leaders.? Unfortunately there hasn't been a way yet to
  deal effectively with the problem.? It's sort of a lead the horse to
  water but can't make him drink type thing.

  
?

  
On my last trek to Philmont in 2002 I had an advisor tell me that he
  thought I was being overly cautious.? So be it.? Three days later he
  was in CHQ medical having seven stitches put in his head from a conservation
  project accident in shich he got on the downhill side of about a 2,000 pound
  rock that rolled into him.? I rest my case on that one.

  
?

  
I live in the humid Gulf coast and we have a lot of thunderstorms, but
  the humidity is high.? When I got to West Texas or to the mountains the
  lightning really gets my attention.? I don't know if it's the dry air or
  what , but the intensity of the lightning is a lot more than I'm used
to.

  
?

  
In 1996 we drove through Cimarron canyon just before the tornado hit
  Cimarron.? We intended to visit Philont, but opted out because of the bad
  weather.? On the way to Capulin we had to stop and turn around and drive
  away from a lightning storm that was striking the road about five miles ahead
  of us.? you could the sparks of dirt and rocks flying up from the
  strikes.? As we sat in Capulin waiting for the storms to subside, we
  counted five seperate ones at the same time right after dark in every
  direction.? We were in the middle of them and so was Philmont.

  
?

  
Dr. Bob put it in the proper perspective about accidents.? Lightning
  can get the entire crew.? That is something to keep in mind.

  
?

  
John LeBlanc

  Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story.
Play Sims
  Stories at Yahoo! Games.

?

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Received on Wed Aug 1 08:32:06 2007