Life-Threatening Weather

Dear friends:

I apologize for not sending this message to you earlier, I was simply trying to forget about it, but thanks to Mitch's suggestion I decided to share with you my horrific experience, hoping it will help other leaders on future hikes. It is about mine and Helen's book hike to Jefferson on Saturday, August 16th [2003].

Our plan was to go up Six Husbands and come down Caps Ridge. We followed all weather reports very closely, since they were predicting afternoon thunderstorms we decided to start with plan A, then once we get over the Six Husband Tr. asses the situation if negative as plan B take Gulfside and Sphinx Tr. loop and back on Great Gulf Trail.

With two no shows myself and Helen started with a group total of seven enthusiastic hikers at 8.45 from Great Gulf, to keep a comfortable pace Helen was leading, myself sweeping, nothing was unusual about the weather. with occasional cloud cover on the summits, the Sun shining on and off. We covered the first 4.6 miles fairly good time, until we reached the Six Husbands Tr. where our progress slowed down, some rocks being damp (not wet) we were very cautious, by the time we reached the top of the hump where the trail becomes gradual it was 1.30PM.

At this point the group was enthusiastic, the weather didn't look that bad, we decided to continue with our plan A. Since we had already spotted a car at Caps Ridge, after a short break we started the last 0.7miles of our hike to the summit, at 0.4mile marker from the summit going over the rocks, some members of the group slowed down, at that point Helen started sweeping and always staying within viewing distance unless there was a fog cover. Myself and three others continued our last pitch, couple hundred feet from the summit it started raining, we stopped to put our shells and continued, we were 50 feet away from the big cairn next to the summit when all of a sudden we were taken over by a dense cloud and winds, we dashed towards the cairn for protection from the winds, as we got to the other side of the cairn the rain changed to pea size hale with 50 to 60 MPH winds blasting us with such a force that we were more in pain from the blast of the hale then the cold, within minutes it was a complete white out, we couldn't see more then two feet, and it seemed the wind was getting more intense, in order to maintain our body heat four of us huddled as close possible to each other, laying on the ground like Alaskan huskies exposing only our packs to the elements, My concern at this point was Helen's group, since they were behind and below us I was hoping they had better chance to find cover, or even better if they went down to the tree line.

By now 10 minutes had passed we were still huddled to each other, the hale and the winds were getting more vicious, as I was confessing my sins to all mighty, she responded with a big thunder of lightning, at that moment we threw our poles and moved away from the cairn immediately minimizing our chances of getting hit by a lightning, as we were moving away from the huge cairn, few big pieces of rock fell down from the top of the cairn which would been fatal if we were there. With no chance of either standing or to see which directions is up or down we continued to stay huddled together in an open area.

At this point I was not concerned about myself, someone that had been near dead three times before, this wasn't going to scare me, I was more worried about Helen's group, being out of sight without knowing their situation, and the condition of my group, having been exposed to such extreme cold and wet, I was seriously concerned of hypothermia danger.

After 5 more minutes of lightning, we had a window of visibility for a minute, that's when I said this is our chance, all four of us together we dashed down as fast as we could despite our legs half frozen, 100 feet below we met Helen's group they had taken shelter at a rocky opening as I suspected, at this point the hale subsided but the lightning continued, I urged the whole group to make a dash to the nearest tree line, which we did, once we reached a sheltered area we stopped to relax and regroup to find out where we were, it didn't take us long to figure out we were back on Six Husbands, but no body cared at that point even it was Huntington Ravine.

We continued our descend very slowly and cautiously, we were out in the parking lot by 8.30PM exhausted, but safe and sound. I could say I was the happiest of all, watching the faces of the participants as they were thanking us what could have been a serious disaster, turned out to be a very rewarding experience.

Advice to other leaders.? Or Hind sight.? Implement Plan B at the slightest indication of negative weather report regardless if predictions are in the afternoon or late afternoon. And when you see any kind of cloud cover on the Presidentials, DO NOT GAMBLE WITH MOTHER NATURE without hesitation go to plan B.
I have forwarded to Wes already.
Thank you for your support
Leon