Rock climber struck by lightning
By Walt Walker
It was 1530 hours Monday afternoon
when the Hemet Station of the Riverside County
Sheriff's Department called me and requested
RMRUs assistance. It had been reported to
the U.S. Forest Service that a climber had been
struck by lightning while climbing Tahquitz Rock.
It was also reported that he was unconscious.
With a report
like that I requested the S.O. to call Don
Landells and have him meet us in Idyllwild with
one of his jet Ranger helicopters. In record
time, I had rushed home, changed clothes, loaded
my gear and headed over to pick up the No. 1 van.
As I was
driving towards Idyllwild I could see the
lightning burst out of the dark clouds. It sent
chills down my back as I remembered when two
fellow RMRU members and I had been climbing North
Palisade in the High Sierra, when we were caught
on an exposed ridge during a lightning storm that
was filled with bolts that struck all around us.
Mary Bowman
and I set up base near the Camp Maranatha
softball field as members were arriving. Don
Landells radioed that he was only five minutes
out. Jim Fairchild and I quickly moved over to
the field. When Don landed I filled him in on
the details as RMRU members removed the rear
doors of the bird. Jim and I climbed in the back,
buckled up, and off we went towards the rock.
We flew
directly to the area, near the summit of Tahquitz
Rock, where the injured climber had been reported
to be at. We circled the area a number of times
then we circled the entire rock and searched the
trail back to Humber Park Don flew back to the
field and we put the informant into the front
seat and we took off again. The informant, Mike
Draper, directed us to the area we had first
searched. We radioed back to base and requested
to have the S.O. contact all the nearby
hospitals. Don headed back to the field and
landed.
In about 20
minutes we received word that Samuel Roberts, Jr.
was in the emergency room at the Hemet Valley
Hospital. We later learned Mr. Roberts had been
sitting on the rock when the lightning struck. He
had received a ground current shock and was
rendered unconscious. When he regained
consciousness, other climbers had helped him off
the rock and his climbing partners had drove him
to the hospital. He was not seriously injured and
was released that evening from the hospital.
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