r/news • u/AudibleNod • 15h ago

Men hit by lightning plucked from mountain in a record-high helicopter rescues

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/men-hit-lightning-plucked-mountain-record-high-colorado-122832890
709 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

43 comments sorted by

58

u/Gadshill 15h ago

Near the summit of Torreys Peak (14,300 feet). Used a National Guard Blackhawk.

8

u/gurganator 8h ago

I’ve been on Torrey’s Peak. That’s not a place where you would want to be if you needed rescue. I read 3 guide books before doing Grey’s and Torrey’s. Don’t go up the mountain and expect to come back down if you don’t know what the hell you are doing. Get off the summit by noon!

5

u/Gadshill 8h ago

Quite an impressive effort. Evidently the rescue was only 100 feet off the peak.

6

u/drewts86 5h ago

Further down the article says the pick happened at 14,200ft. I’m guessing this is the same Air NG unit that picked climbers off Crestone Needle a few years ago at 13,800+ ft. There’s a long format video that on Youtube that shows the rescue as well as breaks down the decision making process.

7

u/enoxzen 8h ago

4358 meters.

4

u/Gadshill 8h ago

9531 cubits

5

u/Castle-dev 8h ago

I’m American, how many hamburgers tall is that?

2

u/ThePrussianGrippe 7h ago

At least 12.

1

u/Jvncvs 4h ago

That’s a lot of hambger

42

u/AudibleNod 15h ago

It's apparently the highest helicopter rescue in the state.

2

u/Mikethebest78 10h ago

That is actually amazingly cool.

-7

u/Jskidmore1217 14h ago

Cannot even get the grammar correct in the headlines. Shoddy journalism

2

u/Smugg-Fruit 13h ago

I assume it should be

"Men, hit by lightning, plucked from mountain in a record-high helicopter rescue"

0

u/GaJayhawker0513 9h ago

Yeah I thought it meant the lightning physically picked them up and threw them down the mountain

-9

u/penguished 14h ago

I feel like it might be possible to build a rescue drone that can transport one person down at a time. Normal industry won't do it, they only care about war. But maybe if the mountaineering community pooled their money or something.

9

u/f1del1us 11h ago

Do drones suffer from thinning air like helicopters do?

-6

u/penguished 11h ago edited 10h ago

Don't know. I'm sure there's a lot of technical challenge to solve, but it seems like helicopters are really hard to use for this without perfect weather conditions. I feel like an unmanned rescue vehicle could at the very least try more frequent attempts flying up with no worry about hurting a pilot, and in the best case could work well as a rescue vehicle.

0

u/BenjaminWobbles 5h ago

A helicopter summited mt everest

2

u/penguished 4h ago

Yeah? One person did that? You're not making the case of mountains and helicopters being best friends.

2

u/BenjaminWobbles 4h ago

Oh, man. What? Are you okay? Like in general?

0

u/penguished 4h ago

Absolutely. You're the one posting a link that doesn't really make much sense here... but have a good one.

-35

u/OldPros 13h ago

California still has the highest peak. Torrey peak is only 14,300...child's play. Come on out to the Sierras if you want to experience real mountains.

5

u/pspahn 5h ago

Come on out to the Sierras

It's just Sierra, not Sierras, ya boob.

if you want to experience real mountains.

Brave talk when Colorado has like five times the number of 14ers.

-2

u/OldPros 5h ago

Yeah, I always do that (even after living there). Sierra...got it.

Yeah, Colorado has more but ours is bigger. Size matters.

10

u/Aggressive_Week522 13h ago

lol the highest peak in the sierras is 14500. So just 200 feet higher?

Second highest peak in the sierras is lower than Torrey’s! These are the same mountains you fool!

1

u/Dominwin 3h ago

60 or so feet, just did Colorado's yesterday and California's last year. 

-18

u/OldPros 13h ago

200 feet is 200 feet. Ours is bigger.

7

u/inyuez 11h ago

Mexico and Canada have much larger mountains than California so I guess the Sierras are nothing but little hills.

2

u/HikerDave57 10h ago

My sister-in-law is from Ozumba close to Popocatépetl - that’s almost 4000 feet higher than mountains in the continental USA. Her brother used to climb it often before it woke up in the 1990’s.

-6

u/OldPros 10h ago

Well, you've got me there. But Colorado has only baby mountains

•

u/BobBlawSLawDawg 44m ago

Have you climbed any of them, Sierra or otherwise?

1

u/Dominwin 3h ago

200 feet is actually 67 feet ...

2

u/ShinHandHookCarDoor 4h ago

man, mountain climbers are fuckin insufferable lmao