Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 16, 1990 TAG: 9007160147
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: LONE PINE, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium
But their carefree day trip Saturday to the top of Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the 48 contiguous states, instead became a nightmare.
Fifteen hikers, traveling in five different groups, suffered through a hellish afternoon and evening when a sudden electrical storm - described by the National Weather Service as "extremely dangerous" - trapped them in two separate locations and rained lightning bolts down on them.
One man, Matthew Edward Nordbrock, 26, of Huntington Beach, Calif., died.
Two others, James MacLeod, 24, of Long Beach, Calif., and Terry Nabours, 32, of Laguna Hills, Calif., required emergency resuscitation to survive.
Thirteen hikers sought refuge from the storm in an old stone hut perched on top of the 14,500-foot peak. Instead of providing shelter, the hut's corrugated steel roof attracted a lightning bolt.
The flash of energy zapped the group of hikers with varying amounts of electricity, resulting in first-and second-degree burns on all of them, temporarily paralyzing several, knocking out MacLeod and fatally injuring Nordbrock.
Two of the group hiked down the mountain to seek help Saturday night. Nordbrock, Swift and James MacLeod were later removed from the summit by helicopter. The others spent the night in the hut, awaiting a daybreak helicopter rescue.
MacLeod said that he remembered sitting against a wall of the hut, talking with the other hikers for about 30 minutes as the storm raged outside. His next memory, he said, was of his companions' faces staring down at him, asking him questions. His fellow hikers told him he had been unconscious for at least 20 minutes.
"Every article of clothing I have has holes in it, except my shoes," he said. "Every muscle in my body must have contracted. I'm sore all over."
MacLeod said that doctors told him the electrical charge entered his right shoulder, where a 4-inch-diameter wound could be seen, and then caused nearly a dozen smaller wounds where it exited his body.
"It's unbelievable what it did to me," he said. "It's so scary to think about how it just went right through me."
MacLeod told reporters that he, his brother, and Tervo had driven to Lone Pine on Friday night and slept in their cars at Whitney Portal, the mountain's eastern trail head, and set out on the 10.6-mile trek to the summit at 8 a.m. in clear, hot weather. As they finished a series of 100 steep switchbacks three-quarters of the way up the mountain, the men noticed a storm brewing over distant peaks.
"We heard thunder at a distance, but we didn't think much of it," James MacLeod recalled. "When it started raining, our first thought was to get dry. I guess we should have thought about our own well-being."
Seeing the hut through the rain and hail, the trio took refuge with the other hikers.
Edward Wueherer said that the group began discussing whether the hut would be safe in a thunderstorm, shortly before the bolt scored an apparent direct hit.
Nordbrock, who was seated in the center of the hut, was thrown several feet by the charge, and lay still on the ground, Wueherer said. Several others were momentarily paralyzed.
Hikers who knew how to perform cardio-pulmonary resuscitation immediately began assisting MacLeod and Nordbrock. The group worked on Nordbrock for more than five hours before rescuers arrived by helicopter to take him to the hospital where he died.
by CNB