Men hit by lightning plucked from mountain in record-high Colorado helicopter rescues
Rescuers fetched two men struck by lightning from a Colorado peak in what they believe were the highest helicopter rescues on record in this mountainous state.
One man remained hospitalized in fair condition Friday while the other was treated at a hospital and released.
The rescues happened late Thursday near the summit of Torreys Peak, a 14,300-foot (4,360-metre) mountain about 40 miles (64 kilometres) west of Denver. Torreys Peak is ranked variously as the 11th or 12th highest summit in Colorado and is less than 200 feet (60 metres) shorter than the state's highest mountain, Mount Elbert.
The men from New York state, whose identities weren't released, had decided to summit the mountain during a road trip, Alpine Rescue Team public information officer Jake Smith said.
They first called for help around 5 p.m. after getting off course on their way up a technical route. A different route doesn't require climbing gear or expertise.
'It doesn't sound like they had a ton of prior experience. I think it was probably just a lack of awareness,' said Smith, who was among the rescuers on the ground.
Rescue officials guided the men back on course, and they made it to the summit. Minutes later, one of them called back to report they had been struck by lightning.
About 30 rescuers went up the mountain while another team used a Colorado National Guard Blackhawk helicopter to get the more seriously injured man, who was nonresponsive and in critical condition, off the peak using a hoist at 14,200 feet (4,330 metres).
He was flown down to an ambulance and taken to a local hospital, then to a Denver hospital with a burn unit, Smith said.
The helicopter made another trip around midnight to fetch the less seriously hurt man by partially touching down on the mountain.
The rescuers believe Colorado's previous record for a helicopter rescue was 13,700 feet (4,175 metres). Such rescues are challenging because thin air causes helicopters to lose lifting ability the higher they fly; the Blackhawk has an altitude limit of about 19,000 feet (5,800 metres).
Hikers and climbers often prefer to ascend during the morning and avoid the Rocky Mountain high country on summer afternoons. Thunderstorms are common and can develop suddenly with dangerous lightning, hail and plummeting temperatures.
Article by Mead Gruver.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CTV News
2 days ago
- CTV News
Indian rescuers scour debris after 60 killed in flood
In this Oct. 7, 2016, photograph provided by Juniper Outdoor Pursuits Centre Pvt. Ltd shows Nanda Devi twin peaks which are connected with a razor sharp ridge with a distance of around 2 kilometers running at approximately 6666m height or 22,000 feet, seen from Chaukori in Uttarakhand, India. (AP Photo/ Maninder Kohli via Juniper Outdoor Pursuits Centre Pvt. Ltd) Indian rescuers pulled bodies from mud and rubble Friday after the latest deadly flood to crash through a Himalayan village killed at least 60 people and washed away dozens more. Torrents of water and mud driven by intense rain tore through Chisoti village in Indian-administered Kashmir on Thursday, leaving dozens missing, including Hindu pilgrims who were visiting a shrine. It is the second major deadly flooding disaster in India this month. Officials said a large makeshift kitchen in Chisoti, where more than 100 pilgrims were, was completely washed away by what Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah reported was a sudden 'cloudburst' rain storm. Arun Shah, 35, had just completed his pilgrimage with his family when the flood struck. 'It was horrifying', he told AFP, speaking by telephone from a hospital in Kishtwar district, where Chisoti is located. 'Boulders and a rush of water came down from the mountain. We all got separated while trying to save ourselves,' he said. Kishtwar district hospital head Yudhvir Kotwal told AFP more than 100 people were brought in after the disaster. 'Most of the injured had head injuries, fractured bones and ribs,' Kotwal said, adding that 'dead bodies are still being retrieved from under the mud and rubble'. Heavy earthmovers were brought to the disaster area to dig through deep mud. The army's White Knight Corps said its troops, 'braving the harsh weather and rugged terrain, are engaged in evacuation of injured'. Emergency supplies including ropes and digging tools were being brought to the disaster site, with the army supporting other rescue teams. Mohammad Irshad, a top disaster management official, told AFP on Friday that '60 people are recorded dead', with 80 people unaccounted for. Floods and landslides are common during the June-September monsoon season, but experts say climate change, coupled with poorly planned development, is increasing their frequency, severity and impact. Floods on August 5 overwhelmed the Himalayan town of Dharali in India's Uttarakhand state and buried it in mud. The likely death toll from that disaster is more than 70 but has not been confirmed. The UN's World Meteorological Organization said last year that increasingly intense floods and droughts are a 'distress signal' of what is to come as climate change makes the planet's water cycle ever more unpredictable. Roads had already been damaged by days of heavy storms in Kishtwar district. The area lies more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) by road from the region's main city Srinagar. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the spate of disasters in his Independence Day speech in New Delhi on Friday. 'In the past few days, we have been facing natural disasters, landslides, cloudbursts, and many other calamities,' he said. 'Our sympathies are with the affected people. State governments and the central government are working together with full strength.'
CTV News
2 days ago
- CTV News
Flash floods triggered by torrential rains kill at least 120 people in India and Pakistan
India's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and other security personnel carry out a rescue operation after Thursday's flash floods in Chositi village, Kishtwar district, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Channi Anand) CHOSITI, India — Flash floods triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 120 people and left scores others missing in India and Pakistan over the past 24 hours, officials said Friday, as rescuers brought to safety some 1,600 people from two mountainous districts in the neighboring countries. Sudden, intense downpours over small areas known as cloudbursts are increasingly common in India's Himalayan regions and Pakistan's northern areas, which are prone to flash floods and landslides. Cloudbursts have the potential to wreak havoc by causing intense flooding and landslides, impacting thousands of people in the mountainous regions. Experts say cloudbursts have increased in recent years partly because of climate change, while damage from the storms also has increased because of unplanned development in mountain regions. Dozens missing in remote Himalayan village In India-controlled Kashmir, rescuers searched for missing people in the remote Himalayan village of Chositi on Friday after flash floods a day earlier left at least 60 people dead and at least 80 missing, officials said. Officials halted rescue operations overnight but rescued at least 300 people Thursday after a powerful cloudburst triggered floods and landslides. Officials said many missing people were believed to have been washed away. At least 50 seriously injured people were treated in local hospitals, many of them rescued from a stream filled with mud and debris. Disaster management official Mohammed Irshad said the number of missing people could increase. Weather officials forecast more heavy rains and floods in the area. Chositi, in Kashmir's Kishtwar district, is the last village accessible to motor vehicles on the route of an ongoing annual Hindu pilgrimage to a mountainous shrine at an altitude of 3,000 metres (9,500 feet.) Officials said the pilgrimage, which began July 25 and was scheduled to end on Sept. 5, was suspended. The devastating floods swept away the main community kitchen set up for the pilgrims, as well as dozens of vehicles and motorbikes. More than 200 pilgrims were in the kitchen at the time of the flood, which also damaged or washed away many of the homes clustered together in the foothills, officials said. Photos and videos on social media show extensive damage with household goods strewn next to damaged vehicles and homes in the village. Authorities made makeshift bridges Friday to help stranded pilgrims cross a muddy water channel. Kishtwar district is home to multiple hydroelectric power projects, which experts have long warned pose a threat to the region's fragile ecosystem. Hundreds of tourists trapped by floods in Pakistan In northern and northwestern Pakistan, flash floods killed at least 60 people while rescuers evacuated 1,300 stranded tourists from a mountainous district hit by landslides. At least 35 people were reported missing in these areas, according to local officials. More than 360 people, mostly women and children, have died in rain-related incidents across Pakistan since June 26. Bilal Faizi, a provincial emergency service spokesman in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said rescuers worked for hours to save 1,300 tourists after they were trapped by flash flooding and landslides in the Siran Valley in Mansehra district on Thursday. The Gilgit-Baltistan region in Pakistan has been hit by multiple floods since July, triggering landslides along the Karakoram Highway, a key trade and travel route linking Pakistan and China that is used by tourists to travel to the scenic north. The region is home to scenic glaciers that provide 75% of Pakistan's stored water supply. Pakistan's disaster management agency has issued fresh alerts for glacial lake outburst flooding in the north, warning travelers to avoid affected areas. A study released this week by World Weather Attribution, a network of international scientists, found rainfall in Pakistan from June 24 to July 23 was 10% to 15% heavier because of global warming. In 2022, the country's worst monsoon season on record killed more than 1,700 people and caused an estimated $40 billion in damage. ___ Channi Anand And Riaz Khan, The Associated Press Khan reported from Peshawar, Pakistan. Associated Press writers Anwarullah Khan in Bajur, Pakistan, Abdul Rehman in Gilgit, Pakistan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan and Ishfaq Hussain in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan contributed to this story.
CBC
2 days ago
- CBC
Florence and the Machine were right: The dog days (of summer) are over, at least for this year
It's official: The dog days of summer are over. At least, astronomically speaking. "This term the dog days of summer goes back all the way to actually past ancient Greece, even into ancient Egypt and all of it is in reference to a star that's the brightest star in our system called Sirius, which is the dog star," says Orbax, a science communicator with the University of Guelph and who is one part of the science entertainment duo Orbax and Pepper Do Science. Sirius, known as the dog star, was brightest between July 3 to Aug. 11 when viewed in southern Ontario, the U.S. National Weather Service says on its website, "which is 20 days prior and 20 days after the star Sirius rises and falls in conjunction with the sun." But the saying has also been linked to the hottest days, and Orbax says that has led to lore about the star and the weather. "It's one of these stars that actually consistently rises and sets at the same times every year. So when it would come up early in the morning, ancient civilizations would link this idea to almost like having an extra sun," Orbax said. He added that it was also that time in August where grass and foliage might be dying in the heat, "and we'd all feel pretty beat down because my understanding is that in ancient Greece, there was a pretty severe lack of air conditioning." Downward trend to the cold days of winter Turns out, the dog days of summer are also waning weather–wise. Steven Flisfeder, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, says "unofficially you can think of the dog days of summer as the absolute peak in terms of temperatures, so when we're, climatologically speaking, expected to be the absolute hottest before we start our gradual decline in toward the fall," he said. He says the weather often lines up with Sirius being bright in the sky with the hottest days in late July and early August. So now, how do the dog days stand as of Aug. 15? "Climatologically speaking, every day is going to be different, but in general it is a downward trend from here on out," Flisfeder said. As well, meteorological summer is getting set to wrap up at the end of the month. "The meteorological seasons always start on the first day of their respective month. So for summer, it starts June 1, for fall, it starts September 1. And the very basic reason for that is that it's statistically convenient," he said. But even if summer is coming to a close, Flisfeder notes it doesn't mean sweater weather begins on Monday, Sept. 1. "We can still have warm temperatures toward the end of summer even into the early parts of fall. We've had heat events through to the end of September," he said.
