"Brody I am right there with you. I always try to be back below tree line early afternoon. I hate getting caught up high when the weather rolls in."
Last fun time with lightning was a couple of years ago. Clear day, blue shies and we were climbing on some big rocks above Estes on Lumpy Ridge.
Since the day was so clear and we were climbing pretty well, we decided we would move fast and just use one rope, instead of carrying the extra rope needed to rappel down if we got into a jam. Even though we were both familiar with how rapidly storms could move in, we took a calculated risk and just stuck our rain gear in a belt pack, grabbed a 225' rope so that we could string a couple of pitches together and went for it.
Sure enough, two long rope lengths up, we had managed to get a loop of our one rope thoroughly stuck in a crack down below us somewhere and your basic 'toad strangler' move in. Thinking that it was just going to be a simple Colorado 'rain like a ******* for an hour, then sun' rainstorm. We just put our rain gear on and tied off to the belay.
Well, it turned into one of those 'Big Thompson Flood' rainstorms, complete with a major lightning storm. The lightning strikes were hitting about ever 30 seconds or so, with the sound coming immediately afterward. It was pretty damn spectacular from our view point high on the cliff face, and the sound was rolling up the valley towards Estes, hitting another hill at the end of the valley and then rolling back.
Since our rope was stuck and we figured that we were going to stand just as much of a chance getting tagged if we screwed around with it to get it free, or, if we did manage to free it up, spend as much time and be in as much danger climbing to the top (another 450' of pretty hard climbing) we decided to just hang out and watch the fire works. By this time, the crack system we were anchored in had turned into a mini waterfall...I was anchored above Darren and had water going down the back of my waterproof pants, down the back of my leg and pouring out my cuff into the back of Darren's pants...We were, quite literally, hanging, as there wasn't a ledge system to put our feet on..
Anyway, we were thinking about the rope we had left on the ground and we laughing about our stellar choice. We were also joking about how the rangers were going to be finding a pair of smoking climbing shoes on this cliff face when all was said and done. I mean...what else are you going to do but laugh...We were also located on a rock that had slightly higher rocks on either side..whih we watched the lightning hit a few times...you could smell it in the air..We were treated to a pretty wild display with lightning striking all around us and watched the clouds fill the valley floor, then rise back up.
After about 3 hours or more, the rain finally slackened a bit and one of us down climbed to where the rope was bound up in the crack. It took about 40 minutes to free the rope up (a loop had gotten loose from the wind and blown the rope into the crack) and we finished the climb.
This was a calculated risk where we knew that there was a chance we could get caught in a storm and we would have problems getting down with one rope should we run into trouble. It was talked about before hand, too. It was also not the first time either one of us had gotten stormed on on a rock climb or gotten cold, wet and miserable. Neither of us had any 'issues' with our choice, we were treated to a spectacular display that we wouldn't have seen from our couch, and actually had an interesting climb. And we managed to keep our humor through the whole thing and not get tweaked...
Still, all in all, it would have been more fun to have avoided the storm and enjoyed a day of fun in the sun rock climbing..