Storm-safe camping terrain in high southern Sierra?

[SirBC]

….I read that during a lightening storm there is some measure of protection by keeping both legs together so that current does not travel through your body from one leg to the other. Any truth to that?

I think (and by "think" I mean that somewhere in my beer addled brain) I remember that the goal of assuming a lightning position is to keep the current from a lighting strike from hitting your heart. This is done by crouching with feet slightly apart and your arms then wrapped around your shins. If the strike hits the ground it will then travel to the foot nearest the strike, run up that leg and then across your arm and down the other leg to the ground, bypassing your heart. And I have zero confidence that I am remembering this correctly so if anyone can confirm or correct please do so.

[SirBC]

OK, a quick google search on the "Lightning Position" says I'm not remembering correctly. This looks to be the most common Google answer for the Lighting Position:

[sukhoi_584th]

You want your feet together because the lightning can cause voltage differential across the ground you're standing on. If your feet are close together there is less voltage differential between your two feet.

[Love the Sierra]

Thank you for the post. I am always very chicken and sometimes I have been angry with myself “UGG Why did I come down and ruin what would have been a great day, never did get the lightning and thunder!” and a few times I have been very glad that I made the good choice and came down from high, exposed places jut in time for the light show. I guess it also depends upon how heavy your pack is and how quickly you can hike to safety.
I also have noticed that even a few hundred feet of altitude loss can get you a lot more protection.
Thank you @SSSdave , it will be interesting to read the science.
Any further comments will be appreciated. Though I have gone out a lot and read a lot, always good to hear other points of view.

[Love the Sierra]

HMMM, I also remembered about holding your shins. However, I do believe that if you ha e to take that position, your are already in serious danger. I prefer to get to safety long before I would need it. Indeed, you can get caught and good to know.

[Love the Sierra]

I think that we are off topic... What should one do if you are camped above tree line? Will it help to be near boulders that are much taller than you and your tent?

[CAMERONM]

I got caught at the top of Bishop Pass with lightning/thunder intervals that dropped to a few seconds. I regret not holding back as the storm approached, especially as I was leading a novice. However I spoke to someone downtrail who was positioned in every way better: lower altitude, under a field trees, etc. and the lightning was striking very close to him. I have met two people who have been struck while backpacking, one who still suffers from cognitive issues. My take is that I will do everything to move to safety, but after that, its a random and dangerous situation.

[Love the Sierra]

Whoa @CAMERONM THAT is scary!! Especially since I am always the chicken who heads down to safety instead of taking my chances of getting up and over whatever I have to get up and over.

[sparky]

I got caught in a bad way just over paiute pass. BLue skies leading up to the pass, then noticed some clouds on the ridge to the south.

it came up on me unbelievably quick. when I topped the pass I saw storm clouds and observed, but they seemed to be hesitating to the south of me and didnt seem like they were doing anything so I continued on.

Right before the lightning started, the clouds just suddenly descended right on top of me. It was very thick and visibility was cut down to 20'-ish. It had started raining pretty good so I took shelter under a large boulder. Suddenly the lightning started firing off RIGHT NEXT TO ME. Could feel the static in the air. When they fired, it would light up the whole cloud around me so i couldnt tell if it was in front behind left or right. There wasnt seconds between flash and thunder, they were instantaneous explosions I could feel the concussion of that was so intense, again I couldnt tell which direction the sound was coming from

I couldnt really see to know where better shelter was. I pretty much thought I wasnt going to make it out of there. It might not have been the best decision to make a run for it but during a lull but I did, and would stop and crouch/assume the position and wait when they started going off again. I took off to the south-ish i think, and pretty much was playing a game of frogger running from grove to grove of small collections of trees none of which felt safe at all

I seriously have no idea how long it took me to get to a substantial grove of trees but probably not less than 30 minutes...it was awhile, and the storm raged with lighting going off very close for quite awhile longer after tossing up my tent and jumping in. I felt safe-er but just marginally so.

Now I kind of freak out whenever I see clouds getting dark and lowering, or hear thunder in the distance haha

[giantbrookie]

I think that we are off topic... What should one do if you are camped above tree line? Will it help to be near boulders that are much taller than you and your tent?

To return to the original query in the post. I think there are some take home points from the various information posted. The basic principles are fairly fundamental which are that (1) avoid high ground and (2) even if you are on low ground the risk is lower than being on high ground but a lot higher than inside your home.

I just have a bit of anecdotal stuff to add that may aid decision making in terms of camping in Evolution or not. Regarding (1) when there have been serious lightning strikes on people in the High Sierra, the majority of the incidents reported have involved folks on summits or something similar. Examples that come to mind are fatalities on the summit of Half Dome not too many years ago, and, during my teen years (70s) a notorious case of one or two guys being barbecued by a direct hit while sleeping on top of Mt Williamson. In the latter case, I remember the report mentioned that the heat of the direct hit had melted the aluminum zippers on the sleeping bags. The dangers of high ground are also attested to by the common occurrence of fulgerite----melted rock congealed as glass from lightning strikes--on the summits of a number of summits I've climbed.

Regarding (2) the point is that being on low ground in the mountains during a thunderstorm still carries more risk than being inside your home during a thunderstorm. This has been demonstrated to me in several experiences I've had in the High Sierra and elsewhere and I'll recount just a few of many examples. First was when I was a kid and my family hiked to Elizabeth Lake when a thunderstorm came in and a lightning strike set a tree on fire along the shore of the lake. Second was on a professional geology job I was on near Salinas where a drill rig was set up on a ridge. A thunderstorm rolled in and the project manager and I cajoled the driller to shut down and get the heck off the ridgetop. The driller wanted to make his money and was reluctant to comply. There came one of those flashes and bangs that seems like zero time delay but we weren't hit. Instead we looked and saw that in the valley, several hundred feet below us, a windmill had taken a direct hit and was in flames. The driller got the message and we got into our vehicles and got out of there.

I have another experience on a 1996 trip that is illustrates the campsite selection approach as well as the fact that low ground still carries more risk than not being out of doors. Judy and I were on the penultimate day of a 9-day shuttle trip that went into the Sierra via New Army Pass and exited via Shepherd Pass. We were into a big thunderstorm cycle by day 8 which saw us hunker down in Williamson Bowl during one storm, and get pelted by big hail at Shepherd Pass in another. We figured on camping on low ground east/north of Shepherd Pass near the Pothole. Here we were down in floor the valley and camped among low-growing scrub pines. Judy was tired and ate her dinner in the tent, as I cooked outside and looked around. It looked like there would be no more storms that night. As I looked around it was apparent that some of the scrubby pines adjacent to our tent had been hit at least once by lightening strikes---they were deformed and burnt. I thought to myself that I was glad Judy hadn't seen that because it might have made it difficult for her to sleep. Judy was already asleep when I entered the tent and quickly dozed off. Apparently I slept right through a dramatic thunderstorm that rolled through that night and kept Judy awake with many of those under-one-second-time-delay tent-shaking nearby strikes. When she told me the story the next morning I showed her the scrub pines next to the tent.

So, to return to the original query. Camping in Evolution basin on low ground should not be an issue, depending on personal risk tolerance. The lightning risk on low ground out there isn't zero, but it isn't zero anywhere outdoors during a thunderstorm. However, when one considers the objective risks of other aspects of a trip, this risk (of getting hit by lightning), in my opinion is rather low. Statistics will show that this risk is much lower than the risk incurred driving to and from the trailhead from home, for example.