Three men from Texas were camping while hiking in the mountains when their tent was struck by lightning during a storm. Miraculously surviving the ordeal, the three backpackers simply slept it off and then continued hiking to complete their journey. Recently, the legendary trio — Joshua White, 32, of Austin; his brother Colton Connelly, 23; and friend Ian Richmond, 26 — shared their adventure with the media.
According to reports, on August 14, the three set out together to hike the John Muir Trail in California’s Sierra Mountains. They were camping at Guitar Lake beneath Mount Whitney, preparing to summit the next day, when light rain began and quickly turned into heavy rain and hail. Soon after, they realized the thunderstorm was directly overhead. “I remember lying in the tent looking out,” said White, “when an unimaginably bright flash of lightning I’d never seen before lit up the sky, followed immediately by a thunderclap that sounded just like a massive explosion.”
Lightning then struck their tent, sending electric current through all three of them. “It was incredibly painful, beyond belief,” White said. “It ended in an instant, but it felt like every nerve in my body was on fire.”
He tore off his clothes and realized he wasn’t on fire. But smoke was coming from the tent and from the mouths of all three of them. Fearing another strike, they quickly raised the top of their camping tent and moved away to a safe distance. An hour later, the storm passed. Other campers in the area came over to check on them — no one could believe they had survived.
White suffered only a three-inch burn on his shoulder. “I can’t believe it — I think God gave us a second chance at life,” White said. The next day, they went ahead as planned, climbing Mount Whitney and hiking 11 miles down from an elevation of 7,000 feet to complete their trip.
According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 24 people across the United States have died from lightning strikes this year, and survivors may face long-term aftereffects.