1:47-2:33: The climb down:
“Hurry up please,” I heard one nice Indian man call from behind “,Please can we go a little faster up there.” I don’t know why that was funny but the fact that he said “please” made it interesting; everyone else was cussing and yelling at each other to hurry up.
“This is ridiculous,” I heard people call from behind. We were near the back so we knew how it felt.
Ten minutes later it was as if we hadn’t move more than a few planks. As we were going down the wooden rest planks were a huge help. The rock was as slick as ice at this point, and without them down there to help let us catch our breath the whole incident could have ended up worse than it did.
By this point we had made a system. Everyone got one plank, and we would go down one person at a time, so the plank below us would be free when we got there. It wasn’t a very functional system, but when you are scared for your life not much is going to be accomplished.
At around 2:00 the rain had stopped, but that wasn’t reassuring at all. The sky was turning darker and darker; the rock would remain wet until the sun had a chance to dry it off. That wasn’t the worst of it though; the lightning was getting progressively closer and closer. Counting the time from the strike to the sound, we were getting numbers in the low 1’s and 2’s, meaning that the lightning was anywhere from 1/5 to 2/5 miles away. It was literally above our heads.
Looking off in the distance I saw something that sent my stomach into my mouth, I watched a bolt hit a tree and the tree spontaneously combust. The tree was down in the valley actually 3000 feet away, but from there it seemed like it was right in front of me. It was still freaky though. Even freakier is that I could feel the strike, I could feel the electricity in my body. The air felt electric, smelled electric, and even looked electric!
As we went on, I saw another horrific image. My father, who I forced to go in front of me, nearly fell off the face of the rock. I watched as he misplaced his foot, and his body slid from underneath him knocking him back on his back with his hands in the air. He then slid about five feet through the poles, and then he began to head for the right, his body went through the poles and he ended up outside on the bare rock. Somehow he had caught the pole with his foot and he was able to pull himself back up. He got up, shirt torn, and had to listen to the lady in front of him lecture about how stupid he was being.
The last fifteen minutes of the hike were the freakiest, yet funniest. At one point I watched as people turned their attention to me. I didn’t know what was wrong; I was too busy trying not to slip. I found out what had happened, apparently my hair was sticking straight up on end. I was the only one too, so that really got my adrenaline pumping. My entire head of hair was on end, and it’s not like I didn’t know because I could feel the electricity on the cables and in my body. I wish I didn’t know so much about science, because I knew exactly what that meant. The fact that my hair was sticking up meant that the electricity was trying to pass through me to the clouds; it meant that my resistance was lower than everyone else’s. I was more at risk than anyone else.
My moment of relief didn’t come until I saw a chipmunk come running by. However, it was running up and down the rock in perfect safety not having to worry about the rain and the lightning. A good omen, yes, but it also agrivated everyone else on the rock.
“That’s just not right.” The man in front of me exclaimed
“Go away you ******* pest”
People were actually yelling at a chipmunk, flipping it off as it ran up the rock after its acorns.
As I neared the bottom of the rock, I could finally breathe. I know that I had made it safely. It was only a few more steps!
2:33: Down to Safety
I don’t know what more to say. We made it to the bottom and I had to listen to all of the crying of the squeamish and the cheering of the proud. All was well for the most part; no one got hurt and the worst of the injuries were just the scrapes and bruises from the falls people took. I came off with none, only a hurt ankle which I had twisted the day before.
Back to camp:
Everyone rushed back down off the Subdome. As we passed the ranger we told him of the hell we had just lived. He said that we were very lucky; he said that when your hair sticks up, you are bound to be stricken. We all rushed down to get to the safety of our campsite.
