A stormy hike to Beinn Stacath

With thunderstorms forecast for last weekend, the idea of being on the highest hill in the area didn't appeal to me.

Although the chances of being struck by lightning – even during an electrical storm – are low, there are a few incidents each year on mountains in the UK.

Between 30 and 60 people are struck by lightning each year in the UK, with an average of three deaths a year.

Out of 25 million lightning strikes each year in the US, there are only 273 injuries and 48 deaths, and many of those deaths occur on mountain summits.

So I decided not to go ahead with the tough triple mountain walk I'd been hoping to do with my hillwalking group, and instead I put on a much more low-level walk on Saturday, to a mountain called Beinn Stacath (771m/2529 feet).

The mountain is in a beautiful remote lush, green area surrounded by very high mountains.

There was quite a long walk-in of about 3km even before we started to climb, and then the climb itself was mostly quite gradual, long and rambly. In the humid pre-storm weather, some people found it hard-going, and we had to take several breaks.

When we were about 2km from the summit, the skies to the north started to take on a distinctly grey and overcast appearance. By this time we were walking along a plateau with just a few small inclines, and I increased the pace, concerned that if the storm approached quickly we might have to turn back.

As we approached the summit cairn, I heard a distant rumble of thunder. It seemed very far away, and the skies around us were still blue, so I increased the pace a bit more, and we were soon at the summit.

Or so we thought… Muggy, heavy weather can give you brain fog. That's my excuse anyway! Despite quite a majestic looking cairn, another walker nudged me to say that the actual summit was a few metres away, up another small incline.

I suggested to the group that we would have lunch at the cairn, and anyone who wanted to visit the true summit should just leave their backpacks at the cairn and sprint up to the trig point. Myself and five others did this – the others were happy to relax at the cairn.

The actual trig point, with Stob Binnein and Ben More in the background.

Whenever I see a trig point, I somehow feel compelled to stand on it.

The storms were still miles away, hanging around the much higher summits in the distance. In fact, there was a risk in us being in the area. Lightning can strike from as far as 10 miles away.

After about half an hour, we decided to leave, as the distant thunderclaps were becoming distinctly more audible. As we set off over the unusually dry, undulating moorland, many of us were still using our walking poles. After a while, as the clouds started to take on a more threatening appearance, I decided to put my poles inside my backpack, as a precaution.

By now, things were starting to look a bit stormy over Stob Binnein and Ben More.

Actually I didn't realise it at the time, but having metal objects inside your backpack still presents a risk – although at this time the storm was still at quite a distance. Metallic objects should be placed 30m/100 feet away from you in an electric storm.

Others in the group chose to keep walking with their poles. In any case, we were all fairly well spaced apart, which is recommended when there is a danger of lightning strikes.

People should not group together when lightning is about. In 1998, an entire football team was struck by lightning in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Tragically all 11 footballers were all killed, while the opposing team was unhurt.

We were fairly well spaced apart as we walked back down the hill.

The skies above us were still fairly clear as we reached the low-level path for the 3km walk back to the cars, although some light rain had started to fall. Most of us were walking at a fairly fast pace, as we knew the weather was starting to close in.

Although the skies above us were still clear, some very light rain encouraged us to pick up our pace.

When we were about a kilometre away from the cars, we started to hear very loud cracks of thunder from behind us. Luckily it wasn't until we were within a few metres of our cars that the heavens opened, and the rain started to pelt down.

We listened to the storm exploding around us from the safety of our cars – we could barely see outside, due to the rain lashing on the windows. Cars are safe places to be during an electric storm, as long as all the doors and windows are closed. This is not due to the rubber tyres, but because the car's metal frame distributes the electricity around the outside of the vehicle.

Source

When I got home that evening, I read several social media reports from people who had been on much higher mountains during the storm. Many were not even bothered by the lightning, and clearly many of them had not even consulted the weather forecast and were surprised by the thunderstorm, after weeks of dry, sunny weather.

I've read no reports of anyone being struck by lightning over the weekend, although a house was struck by lightning and set on fire. Luckily no one was hurt.

With thousands of people out on the Scottish hills every day, especially at weekends, I think this shows that the chances of being struck by lightning, even in stormy weather, are fairly small.

But what about the very small number of people who are struck by lightning on the hills each year? How can you avoid becoming one of those casualties? I'll discuss that in my next post.