Two individuals were recently saved after being struck by lightning at the summit of Humphreys Peak near Flagstaff, as reported by the FOX 10 Phoenix. The victims, one local from Flagstaff and another from Canada, did not know each other prior to the incident. According to the Coconino County Sheriff's Office, the pair were at the top of the peak when the lightning hit during a storm on Wednesday.
The arduous rescue operation required crews to maneuver five miles on foot due to the mountain's high elevation of over 12,600 feet and hazardous weather conditions that grounded the rescue helicopter. As acknowledged by a representative with the sheriff's office and reported by 12News, "It’s obviously 12,600 feet plus to the peak at one point when your hiking up to that point the treeline ends and as you continue with your hike or as we would continue with our rescue you’re the tallest point traveling on that trial during a storm and during lightning so that lightning will shut down those rescue efforts until it’s safe to travel again." Their determined march was a testimony to the treacherous journey imposed by nature's unpredictable wrath.
The condition of the lightning strike victims remains undisclosed. Efforts to reach the victims were hampered by the storm, which at one point resulted in lost contact between the rescue crews and the injured hikers. Rescuers faced the additional challenge of traveling up a landscape devoid of protection, wherein, standing atop this mountain's spine, the treeline below had risked becoming the tallest entities tempting the storm's volatile energy.
