The Longest Hike

– Part One: A Beautiful Day –

On June 28, 2015, there was hardly more than a single cloud in the sky across the entire front range. As my family and I ascended up the mountain, a warm breeze swayed across the vast landscape, brushing the tundra as it transitioned to stone. The air was temperate yet crisp, a welcomed escape from the blistering heat of Denver in the late summer. Even as a whiny, edgy twelve year old, I couldn't help but appreciate how flawless of a day it was.

We found ourselves on the Southern trailhead of Mt. Bierstadt, one of Colorado’s most popular hikes. Though the mountain sits barren throughout most of the year, in the summer it’s filled with life. It’s one of only 58 peaks in the state to tower above 14,000 feet in elevation, granting it the coveted title of a ‘14er’ which alone draws thousands of people to its trails every year. 

My family and I summited the mountain around 9:30 in the morning, and, along with countless others, wouldn’t descend for at least another hour. It was perfect on the peak. People chugged beers in celebration as others stripped down to speedos and tanned atop ever shrinking piles of snow.

(left to right) My cousin Rudy, me, my father and my dog Yeti resting near the peak of Mt. Bierstadt.

(left to right) My dad, me, my mom, older sister Lilly, and cousin Rudy atop the peak of Mt. Bierstadt.

As my family and I soaked up the warmth of the midday sun, a small gaggle of friends made their way to the peak. The group consisted of four hikers that would become synonymous with the trail shortly thereafter: Mary Prescott, Will Chandler, Matt Dayer, and Jonathan Hardman. 

The group arrived at the base of the mountain in Will’s 2007 Jeep Wrangler around 5:30 that morning. Matt, who both Will and Jonathan described to be an “avid hiker,” reached the summit of Mt. Bierstadt about an hour before the rest of the group. Will, Mary and Jonathan took their time during their ascent as they had to wrangle their dogs: Boone, Will’s Golden Retriever, and Rambo, Jonathan’s German Shepherd.

“It was a really beautiful hike up I can remember,” Hardman said, “Truly perfect weather.”

The friends reunited atop the peak around 10:30, each downing a Pabst Blue Ribbon in celebration. Matt, having spent nearly an hour and a half atop the peak, would descend ahead of the rest of the group after only another 15 minutes. The rest of the group said their momentary goodbyes and began their hike down shortly thereafter.

Jonathan Hardman and his dog Rambo atop Mt. Bierstadt.

By then, my family and I had already begun our descent as well. But something was wrong. In what felt like an instant, the horizon was gone, the sky now masked by a cloak of dark grey. A sense of unease crept its way into the back of my head. My family, along with countless others, were still miles from any form of shelter if the weather continued its turn for the worse. The anxiety I thought to be my own seemed to rapidly spread across the trail as it fell into a hushed silence; the tension palpable as it wafted through the thin mountain air.

“We started to kind of realize that something bad was about to happen,” Jonathan recalled, “I just remember feeling this energy in the air, a feeling of dread.”

While most of the trail was apprehensive of the incoming storm, a man by the name of Nathan Jahns continued his way up to the peak. Nate had just recently moved to Colorado earlier that year and was eager to put his first 14er behind him. Not knowing much of the potential dangers of a late start, he only began his climb around 9:00 that morning. 

The valley across from Mt. Bierstadt suddenly vanished as sheets of rain abruptly appeared, masking everyone’s destination in a thick coat of mist. The echo of rain drummed off the mountain’s surface, filling the silence on the trail with the uneasy ambience of inevitability. 

On an eastbound switch back, my parents came to an abrupt stop on the side of the trail, discussing with each other what the best course of action may be. We had an emergency thermal blanket, but that wasn’t even close to large enough to fit the five of us. We scanned for somewhere to hide, but still finding ourselves near 13,000 feet in elevation, we were nowhere near treeline. 

Anxiety coursed throughout my nerves as the first drops of rain stained the surrounding rocks. My mom reached down to leash our dog Yeti as the sparse droplets quickly transitioned to a torrential downpour. The snap hook clinked around Yeti’s neck as he softly whimpered. Through the rain, his thick beige fur suddenly began to stand on end.

As the rain caught up to Nate, now no less than a quarter mile from the peak, he heard a soft hum impatiently whispering behind him. He paid no mind to it at first, but soon he noticed that the sound moved with him, mirroring every step he made. 

Nate came to a stop as he quickly shifted his bag over his shoulder in an effort to locate the incessant buzz that continued to taunt him. As he looked to his climbing poles, his heart skipped a beat; they violently shook with energy. He quickly pieced together what was about to happen and without hesitation, he grabbed the poles out from his bag and threw them to the ground; running away as fast as he could.

No more than a few seconds later, everything went white; for all of us.

Though it couldn’t have been longer than even a single second, I wasn’t able to see anything for what felt like a lifetime. The deafening roar of thunder rolled in tandem, shaking the entire mountain beneath our feet. I went to cover my ears, but by the time I could react it was far too late. 

When my eyes readjusted and my ears stopped ringing, I turned back towards the peak of the mountain where the cries of horror had begun to emanate from. No more than 100 yards away, I could just barely make out the unconscious bodies of a group of hikers soaking in the rain. 

– Part Two: The Strike –

At 11:35 on the morning of June 28, 2015, a hiker was struck by a bolt of lightning somewhere near the peak of Mt. Bierstadt. A second earlier, it might have been me, a second later, it could have been Nate. It could have been any one of us. But at that exact second, the lightning chose its target, a 27 year old man with a small gaggle of friends. Jonathan Hardman.

Although my family wasn’t able to reach a conclusion on what to do before the strike landed, we were quickly able to now. The rain transitioned to hail as in the span of less than ten minutes the once gorgeous hike had turned into a hellscape. My mom squeezed Yeti’s leash in her hand and uttered one word to us: “Run”.

Without delay, we began sprinting down the trail along with countless others who reasonably seemed to have the same plan as us. As we ran I felt my mind racing. Was someone hurt? Was someone struck? Did I just see someone die? I didn’t know and I wasn’t going to risk my life in pursuit of an answer. There was no time to look back, no time to think, no time to feel. All that mattered was getting off the mountain as fast as we could. So I ran.

Just a stone’s toss away from the peak, Nate found himself braced on the ground, although he couldn’t remember how he got there. Through the beating hail, he quickly pushed himself up and checked his body for any injuries, finding none. Nate let out a sigh of relief as he knew, for now at least, that he was alright. With slight reluctancy, Nate turned his back to the summit that loomed just out of reach, and began to make his way down to the base. The view at the top would have to wait another day. 

Will, Mary and Jonathan all fell unconscious from the strike, having been so close together, but after a minute, Will was the first one to wake up.  Unsure of what had happened or even the fact he had passed out, he suddenly found himself lying on the side of the trail, covered in blood. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever been as scared,” Chandler said, “Blood was rushing down my face. My arms. Just everywhere.”

He looked over to see his partner at the time, Mary, who just woke up as well, bleeding profusely from the top of her forehead. He tried to move over to her but was far too weak and lightheaded. He got ready to call for help, but luckily for him, someone was already there. A person propped his head up just  as another did for Mary. 

The person told Will that he’d passed out for a brief moment from the lightning strike near them. A lightning strike? That was news to Will. He felt as though he would’ve seen that, but it certainly helped justify the blood seeping from his head. He looked around to take in the scene and saw Jonathan not too far away, face down in the mud as others worked their way over to him.

Jonathan was unconscious for around five minutes, but by the time he’d woken up a crowd surrounded him. His sunglasses pooled with blood as his mind raced, looking for answers to explain the agony he awoke to. Initially, he thought he somehow fell off a cliff and was paralyzed from the fall, as no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t move.

“I didn’t know what had happened and feared the absolute worst,” Jonathan said, “The first thing that came to my mind was that I wish I had just died instead.”

Jonathan could hardly breath through the pain, describing it as if his entire nervous system was struck by thousands of tiny needles. It was the worst pain he’d ever felt in his life.

All the while, Nate had worked his way down to a small rock outcropping that seemed to provide at least a short brevity from the rain. Inside the little nook however, Nate found someone already there, cowering from the storm. Her skin was blue and she shook with uncontrollable fear; she was in shock. He’d taken a first aid course years ago, but surrounding chaos left those memories as a blur in his mind.

Realizing that Jonathan was awake, a group of people began to ask him muffled questions he couldn’t quite make out. He was too busy fighting for any sense of feeling in the rest of his body, terrified of a future confined to a wheelchair. Jonathan prayed and manifested for any sense of control over his body until finally, he felt his pinky finger twitch. He let out a sigh of relief as more of the numbing pain continued to dissipate. 

By the time Jonathan was able to talk, two people had propped him up and begun to carry him over to the rock face that Nate found himself under. But Jonathan realized something was wrong, his dog Rambo was nowhere to be seen. His eyes darted across the scene as he tried to find where his 8-month-old puppy had gone. Everywhere he looked, he couldn’t find his German shepard until, blended in amongst the rocks close by, Jonathan spotted him. 

Rambo was lying on the side of the trail unmoving in the rain. Rambo was dead. 

Nate recalls the haunting pleas of Jonathan's cries. “My dog! My dog!” he shouted as he tried to break out of the hold of those guiding him away from his beloved friend. It would be the last time Jonathan would ever see Rambo.

– Part Three: The Hike –

As the two who carried Jonathan were finally able to set him down against the rock inside the nook, Jonathan still had no idea what was going on. His dog was dead, everything hurt and his friends were gone as far as he could tell. Next to the rock a woman was making a phone call. Her voice shook as she looked at Jonathan for a brief moment, telling whoever was on the other side of the line that she had just witnessed him get struck by lightning. Jonathan couldn’t believe those words.

Nate continued to try his best to console the lady in shock, but found himself unable to do much without any supplies. But by a stroke of pure luck, inside the nook where Nate and Jonathan found themselves, a hiker entered, proclaiming to be a medic. He quickly tended to Jonthan’s wounds and moved over to the woman who seemed to have ended up in worse shape than Nate had realized. 

By then the nook was getting cramp and the medic needed to get as many people out as possible. Not knowing what else to do, he turned to Nate and asked him if he'd be willing to get Jonathan down the mountain. Nate, unsure of what else to do, took his order and agreed to help out. He pulled Jonathan up and wrapped his arm around his shoulder and the two began to make their descent.

At the base of the parking lot, Matt anxiously waited for his friends. He knew something was wrong, but things were taking longer than he’d expected. As more and more people made their way down, he was quick to ask as many questions as he could to try and find an answer. 

“I started getting information for people coming down saying like, ‘Yeah, this German shepherd with a shock collar on got struck.’ I was like, oh shit, that's Rambo,” Matt said, “And then more people came on down saying that this blonde girl got her head split open and by then I could assume that was Mary. I didn’t know what to do other than wait.”

As Nate helped carry Jonathan down the mountain, Will and Mary followed soon behind with the help of others. The two of them suffered much worse head injuries than Jonathan had. Nate was surprised to see how well Jonathan held up during their journey down, praying that his adrenaline wouldn’t die down until they reached the base.

But they still had miles to go, and a storm cell that wasn’t close to finished. 

As the hail continued to bash the mountain and everyone on it, electricity still crackled in the air. Several times throughout their descent, everyone's hair would start standing on end, prompting the group to quickly brace themselves for the inevitability of another strike.

“We would be walking behind this girl with long hair. Every couple of minutes or so her hair would just shoot up,” Jonathan said, “It scared the living shit out of us man. We would hit the deck every single time for fear that it was coming again.”

Electricity flowed across the surface of the mountain like an Edison ball, slowing everyone’s trek to a crawl. But a second strike never came.

Nate was keenly aware that Jonathan was a wreck, so he tried to keep him distracted as much as he could throughout their descent. Anytime Jonathan had a moment to process what had happened, he’d slow down even more.

“I had to keep him moving,” Nate said, “I’d tell him that crying about his dog wasn’t going to get us anywhere anytime he’d stop. At moments I probably came off as mean, but I know he knew where I was coming from.”

Their desperate trudge through the mud however led Jonathan and Nate’s forced bond to become much more than that of sheer desperation. As the two engaged in more small talk, a small friendship kindled around their shared love of the outdoors and a similar taste in music.

After roughly three hours, Jonathan and Nate made it to the parking lot, with Will and Mary joining them shortly after. Matt waited by the trail head for them the entire time, and was hit with a surge of relief seeing them make it out okay. Their reunion was brief as Will, Mary and Jonathan were each quickly pulled into an ambulance by the EMTs. Jonathan gave Nate one last hug of gratitude before saying goodbye as the vehicle’s doors closed behind him.

“It was the longest hike ever,” Chandler said.

The base of Mt. Bierstadt after the rain cleared.

– Part Four: Aftermath –

Upon reaching the base a few hours prior, my family and I were exhausted. We wanted nothing more than to be off that mountain, and finally we were. We swiftly made our way to my dad’s truck and trekked to the nearby city of Georgetown to get some much needed food. Eventually, we found ourselves at a small Italian restaurant by the name of Troia’s where the skies were as blue as ever before. Our server noticed our damp clothes and likely rotten stench, and asked us if we climbed Bierstadt today. We nodded prompting her to fill us in on the gossip that had been passed around. 

“I heard that 15 people was struck by lightning atop the peak,” she said, “Glad y’all ain't one of them.”

Although she was wrong with her embellishment, we wouldn’t know it until the next day. We took her word on it and smiled through our exhaustion. Words couldn’t describe how grateful we were that whether it was just one person struck or 15, it didn’t end up being any of us.

Meanwhile, Mary, Will, and Jonathan were escorted to Saint Anthony's Hospital in Denver for treatment. Matt, after being brushed to the side by the EMTs, eventually caught up with the group, driving Will's old Jeep and Boone down to reunite with them. 

Among the trio, Will emerged in the best shape with only a few scratches and a concussion, whereas Mary required 40 stitches on the top of her head. As for Jonathan, the doctors were in awe of his survival. He recounted them saying that they had never seen someone with lichtenberg figures (the marks from lightning strikes) as prominent as his survive before.

But there he was, alive, and in such good shape that he was released from the hospital later that same evening.

Jonathan receiving treatment at Saint Anthony’s Hospital later that evening.

The only casualty that day was Jonathan’s German shepherd Rambo who was carried off the mountain and cremated early the next day. Jonathan was heartbroken, but soon realized that Rambo might have been the reason he survived. Though nothing more than speculation, many believe that Rambo absorbed the rest of the lightning strike through his body and shock collar, preventing it from otherwise passing entirely through Jonathan. Although it’s impossible to know the truth of such a claim, the fact that Jonathan lived might be proof enough in and of itself. 

Despite struggling with short-term memory loss since the accident, Jonathan continues to work and explore; even adopting a new German shepard less than a year later. What’s left of Rambo’s ashes sits atop his dresser as a reminder of his friend he lost that day.

Fourteeners are a staple of ‘summer adventure’ in Colorado, bringing with them some of the best views in the state and a fair amount of clout with it. But the caution and preparation needed for the journey can not be understated. Colorado’s weather can turn on a dime all too often; and that morning, we found that out the hard way. Though we all live to tell the tale of what happened on the mountain that day, someone could have died just as easily. The lightning strike on June 28, 2015 was one of the worst recorded lightning strikes in recent history for the state. No matter what the weather shows or how early you wake up, use caution on the trails; against the powers of nature it’s unlikely you’ll win. Be safe, even if the skies are as blue as they were that day.

My father, cousin and I hiking up the mountain around 7:45 a.m. on June 28, 2015.

Sources:

McGhee, Tom. “Lightning Strike Knocked Some Bierstadt Hikers Unconscious.” The Denver Post, The Denver Post, 6 June 2016, www.denverpost.com/2015/06/29/lightning-strike-knocked-some-bierstadt-hikers-unconscious/. 

Robinson, Kathryn. “Owner’s Dog Likely Saved Him and 13 Other Hikers Struck by Lightning.” NBCNews.Com, NBCUniversal News Group, 30 June 2015, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/owners-dog-likely-saved-him-13-other-hikers-struck-lightning-n384461. 

“14ers.Com Forum.” 14ers.Com, 28 June 2015, 14ers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=46797.