ESTES PARK, Colo. — A 31-year-old Thornton man suffered serious injuries as a result of a lightning strike inside Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP), according to a release from the park.
The man was hiking below the treeline between Dream Lake and Lake Haiyaha on Saturday afternoon when the lightning strike occurred, the release said. Other hikers found him injured along the trail and called park rangers. It is not known whether the man was directly struck by the lightning, according to the park.
RMNP Search and Rescue team members provided medical care to the man. Team members brought him down the trail in a wheeled litter to the Bear Lake Trailhead.
He was taken by Estes Park Health ambulance to Glacier Basin Campground.
Due to ongoing storms along the Front Range, Classic Air Medical from Steamboat Springs flew from west of the Continental Divide to a large meadow near the Glacier Basin Campground.
The man was then flown to Medical Center of the Rockies.
Last month, a Denver man died and his wife was injured when they were struck by lightning while hiking on the popular Bear Peak Trail in Boulder County. The victim was identified as Peter Jornroth.
According to a release from the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, dispatchers received a 911 call on July 14 from a hiker reporting that two other hikers had been struck by lightning. The release said Jornroth was unconscious and not breathing, and that a passerby had started CPR. His wife was conscious and alert.
The Boulder County Sheriff's Office said rescue crews found the couple about a quarter-mile up the Bear Creek Trail from the trailhead, which is in the 2700 block of Bison Road.
The investigation suggested that Jornroth took a direct lightning strike to his upper body, the release said. His wife was not directly hit, but she suffered non-life-threatening injuries from the electrical current.
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