Lightning Strikes Twice: Tallest Thing on the Mountain

What happens when millions of electrical volts strike the human body? We meet a man who knows first hand. In 2012, Andrej Orogvani and two friends head into Slovakia’s Tatra Mountains to enjoy three peaceful days of backpacking. But the weather has other plans. Stranded atop a peak with thunderclouds closing in, it’s only a matter of time before the three pals bear the full force of one of the greatest powers in nature… A Noiser production, written by Nicole Edmunds. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:03John Hopkins?

  It’s July 27, 2012.

• 0:07John Hopkins?

  Above the jagged slopes of the western Tatra Mountains in Slovakia, a menacing storm swirls. Dark clouds plaster the sky, and fat raindrops saturate the ground below, turning the soil into sludge.

• 0:22John Hopkins?

  Ordinarily, at this time of the year, these hills are colorful and verdant, lush and alive with green. But right now, everything is gray and black and sinister. The sky flashes and growls.

• 0:40John Hopkins?

  On the slopes of Prišlop Hill, a dangerous stream of debris is cascading down: tree branches, boulders, stones, and... 31-year-old hiker Andre Orugvani.

• 0:56Speaker 01

  It was like several things happened at the same time. At one moment, you are sitting, and in the second moment, you are sliding down the mountains. And my first idea was, is this earthquake? Because you just don’t control anything.

• 1:10John Hopkins?

  There’s nothing for Andre to grab onto. Every tree, plant, root is engulfed in the deadly mudslide. He’s totally discombobulated, at the mercy of the raging storm, as it tears him away from the hiking trail, through the undergrowth, and down the mountainside.

• 1:28Speaker 01

  One feeling was, now we’re sliding, falling down. The second, I felt just excruciating pain.

• 1:37John Hopkins?

  When the stream of debris slows to a stop, seconds later, and spits Andre out, he realizes the pain is radiating from his legs. He’s unable to move a muscle and lays completely still on the slope.

• 1:53John Hopkins?

  But Andre's pain and paralysis haven't been caused by an earthquake, as he suspects. It's something else, something no less terrifying.

• 2:04John Hopkins?

  He's been struck by lightning.

• 2:08John Hopkins?

  As he tries to get his bearings, a chilling scream suddenly pierces the air, reminding Andre that he's not alone. His friends, Susanna and Tomasz, were hiking on the trail with him when he fell. Have they been struck too?

• 2:24John Hopkins?

  The high-pitched wail rings out again, and Andre recognizes it as coming from Susanna. Although her cries are full of fear, at least she's alive. But what about Tomasz? Andre squints through the pelting rain, shielding his eyes with shaking hands, as he slowly, painfully twists his body to look for his other friend.

• 2:47John Hopkins?

  Then he sees him. Tomasz is a few feet away, unmoving. Andre calls out. But the only reply comes from the storm's orchestra of pounding rain, striking lightning, and rumbling thunder.

• 3:04Speaker 01

  Tomasz was completely silent and not moving, nothing. And I was like, "Tomasz, are you there? Are you there?" He was silent. It was just so intense feeling that something terrible, terrible, wrong has happened.

• 3:26John Hopkins?

  Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice?

• 3:35John Hopkins?

  Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives.

• 3:49John Hopkins?

  In this episode, we meet Slovakian Andrei Oragvane. In July 2012, weeks before the birth of his second baby, Andrei and two friends head to the Western Tatra to enjoy three peaceful days of backpacking. But the weather has other plans for their trip. And when they're caught in a ferocious storm on a precarious peak, their summer adventure becomes a dangerous battle against wind, rain, mudslides, and worse.

• 4:19Speaker 01

  It was like in the movie when you are having this really good time and then something happens, you know, in a second that changes everything.

• 4:29John Hopkins?

  When lightning strikes the mountain top, sending literal shockwaves through the group, their lives are left hanging in the balance. And the storm isn't finished with them yet.

• 4:39Speaker 01

  And then you start to have these thoughts, maybe we are going to die. My kid should be born in three weeks. Maybe I will not be part of that anymore. This was really, really scary.

• 4:51John Hopkins?

  I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Network. This is Real Survival Stories.

• 5:23John Hopkins?

  It's 6 a.m. on July 27, 2012, in Slovakia.

• 5:29John Hopkins?

  The pale summer sun rises above the craggy outlines of the Western Tatra Mountains as friends Andrei, Susanna and Tomasz bounce along the rough roads in the back of a bus.

• 5:41John Hopkins?

  As the road twists and turns to the mountains' contours and passengers gorp at the impressive landscape, the trio chatter trepidatiously about the adventure ahead.

• 5:53John Hopkins?

  The enormous 60-liter backpacks that sit at their feet are stark reminders of their challenge, a three-day trek through Slovakia's most famous range.

• 6:04John Hopkins?

  But Andrei is no newbie. He knows all about long, arduous days of hiking and dark nights camped under the stars.

• 6:14Speaker 01

  Me, I have been there, or I had been there before that trip many times, especially in this first section that was close to my hometown. So maybe I've been there 10, 15 times on all those mountains. So it was like, that was another part why I was maybe overconfident or hubris a little bit, like, okay, what can happen?

• 6:38John Hopkins?

  So confident is Andre that when Tomasz asks if he's bought mountain insurance, just in case they run into trouble on the hike, he admits he hasn't.

• 6:48Speaker 01

  These are like my local mountains. And that's, I think, thing you quite often underestimate. Kind of the more something you know, you have bigger tendency to underestimate at risks that are there.

• 7:04John Hopkins?

  Stretching almost 40 kilometers along the Polish-Slovak border, the western Tatra's range is part of the Carpathian Mountains and consists of some of Central Europe's highest summits. The peaks have lured in tourists and hikers for centuries with their jaw-dropping panoramic views and adventurous trails.

• 7:25John Hopkins?

  Andre was raised in these glorious environments.

• 7:31Speaker 01

  I grew up in the northern part of Slovakia, so that's border with Poland, basically. And that's the most mountainous area in Slovakia. We had woods just, I don't know, five minutes walking from our place. So even when I was nine, 10, 11, I stroll with my friends in the nearby woods. And then as I grew older, we started to do these trips to bigger mountains over the weekend. So there was this feeling of exploration, adventure, independence. So kind of adults are not telling you what to do, where to go.

• 8:10John Hopkins?

  Hiking was an early love of Andre's. And as he grew from a child to a teenager to a young adult, he always found a way to fit it in.

• 8:19John Hopkins?

  Even while studying for his PhD in Bratislava, he traveled almost 2,000 kilometers to Wales every summer holiday to work at an outdoors activity center.

• 8:30John Hopkins?

  Be it the wild hills of Britain or the scenic mountains of Slovakia, Andre was never more at home than in the wilderness.

• 8:44John Hopkins?

  But as the years passed, life inevitably got in the way of his passion. Married, with a baby, and a demanding job in the corporate world, it became increasingly difficult to find time to enjoy the great outdoors.

• 8:56Speaker 01

  After I basically finished with my university and I started to do a kind of real professional life, then it was a period actually where hiking was more scarce. Then I also had a year when I was on the assignment in Spain. I was actually commuting to Madrid almost biweekly. Every week I was there, so that was a tough time. So going to mountains became a little bit a special thing to me, very rare, unique.

• 9:26John Hopkins?

  That's why, in 2012, when Andre and his wife learned their second child was on the way, he decided to give himself a break from the intense stress of work, to briefly get back to nature.

• 9:39Speaker 01

  So that was for me kind of the trigger point that, okay, now, after quite a long time, this is my chance to recharge in the nature, in the mountains. So let's go somewhere, let's do something.

• 9:54John Hopkins?

  Andre ran the idea of a backpacking trip past his hiking buddy, 29-year-old Tomas. The pair met while working in Wales many summers before. Also outdoorsy, Tomas was keen for another trip with Andre after so long. Next on board was a colleague and close friend of Andre's, 28-year-old Susanna. Though relatively inexperienced as a hiker, she's an accomplished climber. And with that, the trio was formed.

• 10:30John Hopkins?

  Now, as their bus rolls its way through the stunning Slovakian scenery, Andre, Tomas, and Susanna discuss the route ahead.

• 10:40John Hopkins?

  Due to the mixed abilities of the group, and the fact that Andre hasn't been on an expedition for a few years, the hike needs to be relatively straightforward.

• 10:50Speaker 01

  Western Tatra's are generally, elevation is around 2000 meters above sea. So you start usually around 1000 meters or 800 meters. So you need to get some elevation first and then it's a ridge walk. You're all the time on the ridge. The valleys leading towards the ridge are usually quite long. It can be 10, 12, even 20 kilometers. The whole ridge is, I think, almost 50 kilometers long. Also, to balance abilities of the group, we couldn't expect that we will do it, I don't know, in one day or two days, basically running. I can run it in one day. But back then, it was like, we need to take it more slowly.

• 11:38John Hopkins?

  What could be better than a gentle three-day trek? Exploring the peaks during sun-drenched days, then dropping down into the valleys to sleep at night.

• 11:48John Hopkins?

  The friends reach down and do a final check of their backpacks. They're bursting with everything they need: food, drinks, sleeping bags, camping gear, and clothes for any weather.

• 12:01John Hopkins?

  But Tomesh brings up insurance again. You can never be too careful. Andre takes out his phone and quickly buys some, just in case.

• 12:13John Hopkins?

  As they're near the trailhead, Andre stares out of the bus's steamy windows, optimistic for three days of blue skies, bright sunshine, and great adventure. Even though the weather forecast looks a little less optimistic.

• 12:30Speaker 01

  When you have kind of only one weekend where you can go somewhere, you sometimes have this tendency to compromise or to kind of to sugarcoat a little bit. And there was a weather forecast that says, yeah, it's a... might be sun and cloudy with some thunderstorms in the afternoons from the heat. And you say, okay, there might be some, but they might be also somewhere else. So I think, retrospectively, I didn't have 100% clear mind about that.

• 13:09John Hopkins?

  This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest-known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' Short Stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Fall.

• 13:52John Hopkins?

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noiser's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November 1st to 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26. This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie.

• 14:33John Hopkins?

  On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest-known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' Short Stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Fall. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.

• 15:19John Hopkins?

  It's 6:30 AM and Andre, Susanna and Tomasz step off the rickety bus onto the trailhead of the western Tatra's range. They stretch and shake their limbs, loosening up.

• 15:33John Hopkins?

  Right now, conditions are just as Andre had imagined. An azure sky stretches out for miles as the rising sun illuminates the green hillsides.

• 15:43John Hopkins?

  Though their backpacks are heavy, their spirits are light as they take their first steps onto the trail.

• 15:50John Hopkins?

  Initially, it's all about getting to higher ground, which means tackling some steep, uneven inclines.

• 15:57Speaker 01

  It's granite, it's rocky. It's not like you are all the time scrambling, but there is a fair share of that, especially the first day, where you need to use hands to move forward. You do not need the ropes, but it's a scramble.

• 16:18John Hopkins?

  Things aren't exactly off to a leisurely start. In fact, it's tiring work as the group scrabble up and down the rocky mountains, using their hands to hoist themselves upwards and finding nooks and crannies to lodge their feet into.

• 16:33John Hopkins?

  It's difficult trying to balance their weight plus that of the backpacks along narrow ridges and across shallow springs.

• 16:41John Hopkins?

  But it's rewarding, and the conditions are second to none.

• 16:47Speaker 01

  The morning was just stunning. It was sunrise, there was a blue skies. We were alone for first maybe two or three hours. It was not too hot, not too warm. It was just an amazing start of the hike. So we climbed this first one, maybe 1,800 meters, and it took us, I don't know, two, two and a half hours. And then on that first peak, that actually the rich stars. And we continue, then you start to see these first clouds. So it was not like only blue skies, but there was some clouds, some blue sky. But it was still very cheerful. It was like, yes, this was the best thing we could have done is just to settle for this hike.

• 17:29John Hopkins?

  The hiking route is clearly marked by little red signs on the stones. So Andre, Susanna and Tomasz navigate with ease. They make good progress, stopping just a few times for refreshments. And before they know it, morning has given way to afternoon.

• 17:48John Hopkins?

  As the sun moves overhead, casting long shadows against the cliffs, the landscape around them changes. The grassy trail narrows and becomes more rocky underfoot, with sheer drops either side.

• 18:03John Hopkins?

  The path grows so thin that the group has to move slowly in single file, with Andre taking the lead. They tread carefully as they descend into a saddle, the lowest area between two peaks. And at that moment, with their boots crunching against the loose scree, the first drops of rain start to fall.

• 18:27John Hopkins?

  Gently at first, nothing more than a light patter, a welcome contrast to the hot sun that's been warming their backs all morning.

• 18:35John Hopkins?

  But as the descent continues, the skies darken and a moody grey erases the blue. The rain grows heavier and the wind picks up, turning the trail ever more treacherous.

• 18:48John Hopkins?

  In conditions like these, there's a real risk of skidding on one of the slippery rocks or getting thrown off balance by a gust of wind. Missteps which could send one of them off the path and straight over the edge.

• 19:02John Hopkins?

  As the showers intensify, the trio start to see other hikers turning back. People don't want to get stranded in the storm.

• 19:11John Hopkins?

  But for Andre, this adversity is part of the enjoyment.

• 19:17Speaker 01

  Maybe it was 3pm or something like that, it started to rain really heavily. So we put the raincoats on and we continued with the hiking. And I can recall that there was this strange euphoric feeling to me. I was like, yes, I don't need beautiful views because now I feel really alive because you were there hiking. There was a really strong, heavy rain falling and that was really the moment of total... Ignorance or stupidity, I was shouting to the skies, is this all you have? Because I felt like I'm so strong, I don't mind whatever comes, you know?

• 20:00Speaker 01

  I felt this euphoria, just from the fact that I'm alive and I'm there.

• 20:13John Hopkins?

  Heads down, bodies bent against the raging wind. Andre, Susanna and Tomasz tread on down the narrow slick ridge as it winds through the saddle of the mountain.

• 20:25John Hopkins?

  Their faces are stung by the cold, their clothes drenched in the downpour.

• 20:31John Hopkins?

  And then, as they trek onto the next peak, Pre-Slop Mountain, the highest summit in this region, the weather starts to clear.

• 20:41Speaker 01

  It actually kind of got better, so we reached the saddle just before the highest peak and the rain suddenly stopped. There were also other people in that saddle and kind of everyone was a little bit kind of hesitant or considering, okay, should I stay or should I go? The skies were split into two halves, so you could see even a sun somewhere in the distance on the south, but towards the north it was really dark, gloomy, gray skies.

• 21:11John Hopkins?

  Ever the optimist, Andre ignores the stormy skies to the north and points to the bright yellow sun gleaming in the distance. He assures Tomasz and Susanna that they're fine to continue. The tempest appears to be receding and they're already starting to dry off, so Andre's sunny outlook doesn't seem unreasonable. Shaking the rain off their coats, they get back to it.

• 21:41John Hopkins?

  Now, onto the second part of the trail, the terrain gets slightly easier. There's less scrambling over rocks and balancing on narrow ridges and more open fields, grassy, expansive plains.

• 21:54John Hopkins?

  But because of the distance from the trailhead, day visitors rarely make it out this far. As they trek onwards, faithfully following the red markers on the stones, Andre, Susanna and Tomasz find that they're pretty much alone.

• 22:14John Hopkins?

  The afternoon passes pleasantly as the trio ambled through the rolling hills, skipping on stepping stones to cross shallow rivers. Then, around 4pm, just as they're beginning another winding path down from the peak of Prislop Mountain, the weather changes again. The storm has returned, and this time with a vengeance.

• 22:39John Hopkins?

  Freezing rain falls in blinding sheets, obscuring the hikers' vision and soaking them to the bone. In mere minutes, mountain sides transform into gushing waterfalls. Trees vibrate violently in the gales, and paths turn into treacherous mudslides.

• 22:57Speaker 01

  The section that follows that highest peak, that's the most technical one, really tough one to handle, even in a good weather. And we had the chat with Susanna and Tomasz, and me and Tomasz, "Ah, I think we can do that." It was like, maybe, two hours from how supposed to camping site. And we were like, "Okay, it's just rain, we can do that." But Susanna, she was, and I really admire her for that, she said, "I don't think it's safe anymore, we should come with a different plan."

• 23:29Speaker 01

  She had this kind of common sense, but also the guts to, you know, overpowered masculinity. So there was like an escape route, there was a side ridge, and following that way, we should be able to reach the mountain hut down in the valley maybe in two hours. So the plan was, we will hike down to that hut, we will spend the night there, and then we will continue with just alternative route next day in the morning.

• 24:00John Hopkins?

  It's a sensible decision, as the storm shows no sign of abating.

• 24:05John Hopkins?

  In single file, led by Andrej, the trio moves onto an offshoot from the main trail. But it's one of the narrowest tracks in the mountains. By now, it's impossible to hear anything about the shrieking wind and hammering rain, and with each step they take, rocks and stones crumble beneath their feet, tumbling into the chasms below.

• 24:26John Hopkins?

  Their progress is slow, every step deliberate. A well-disguised tree root or uneven stone could send them flying.

• 24:35John Hopkins?

  Andre meticulously leads his friends down, guiding and communicating as they go.

• 24:42John Hopkins?

  But then everything changes.

• 24:46Speaker 01

  I was in the front of the group and I turned around to say something to Tomasz and Susanna. And then was this huge crack close to us or behind us.

• 24:59Speaker 01

  I could literally see how face of Tomasz went paler. His eyes went wide and he said, "Okay, there was a lightning really just behind you, you know, really close to you." Then we realized, "Okay, now we need to make a decision." Because you are on this narrow ridge, you are the highest point on that ridge. Yes, you are sticking out of that ridge. There is not much place where you could escape because there are these steep drops on both sides and we didn't want to climb down. There was this fast decision-making, "Okay, we have a situation, so there is a real risk." Because of course we knew that lightning can mess you up.

• 25:44John Hopkins?

  Dozens of electric white lightning bolts flash in the sky above, striking distant peaks like fluorescent daggers. In a wide-open expanse like this, where the trees are scarce and rocks and water plentiful, lightning poses an enormous threat. They have to find shelter, now.

• 26:06Speaker 01

  There was like this big rock sticking out of the ridge. And that rock created sort of overhang. So when we climb below that rock, at least you have this feeling of shelter. So you are not 100% exposed. You are hidden at least from one side, from the wind. So we decided, "Okay, we will sit there and we will wait till storm finishes." So we sat on our backpacks, we pulled out our food, we put the shelter over our heads. And we were still kind of thinking, "Okay, so we should be fine."

• 26:43John Hopkins?

  Safe and dry for now beneath the jutting rock shelf. The three friends huddle together as the storm crashes around them. Thunder rumbles overhead and blades of lightning continue to electrocute the sky.

• 26:58John Hopkins?

  The storm is moving closer. The seconds between thunder and lightning decreased to five, then to four, to three, and then...

• 27:10Speaker 01

  I was kind of like imagined a huge bang. And then it was like several things happened at the same time. You were, at one moment you were sitting and in a second moment you were sliding down the mountain. That rock we were sitting below, the lightning smashed the top of that rock.

• 27:30John Hopkins?

  An electric bolt from above has reverberated through the rock over their heads and fired into the three friends.

• 27:39John Hopkins?

  A flash of lightning can be up to 300 million volts and can heat the air around it to 28,000 degrees Celsius. Five times hotter than the surface of the sun.

• 27:52John Hopkins?

  Andre, Susanna and Tomasz have just borne the fury of this awesome natural force.

• 27:59Speaker 01

  So this pressure wave coming from the lightning that hit this rock, we started to basically slide down the mountain. And my first idea was, is this earthquake? Because you just don't control anything. You are suddenly falling down, moving. And so many things happened at the same time. So one feeling was now we are sliding, falling down. The second, I felt just excruciating pain. So imagine you have like a needle that is stick to every single piece of your flesh, almost unbearable. Then another feeling was this smell of burning flesh.

• 28:40John Hopkins?

  Smashed pieces of granite cascade around Andre, missing him by inches.

• 28:47John Hopkins?

  The burning flesh he can smell is his own. The tingling pins and needles are waves of electricity piercing his muscles. He is powerless and paralyzed as he hurtles down the mountainside.

• 29:01Speaker 01

  This maybe took everything I just described, maybe this took three or five seconds, yeah? But it was just so intense, feeling that something terrible, terrible, wrong has happened.

• 29:21Speaker 02

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• 29:35Speaker 03

  Restrictions apply.

• 29:36John Hopkins?

  This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we untore Zee the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist, and after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen Stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews, and in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.

• 30:19John Hopkins?

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noiser's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November 1st to 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26.

• 30:55John Hopkins?

  Andre lies on the slope, unconscious and unmoving.

• 31:01John Hopkins?

  Slowly, he comes to. The rain fires into his face and the wind shrieks all around.

• 31:09John Hopkins?

  His legs are rigid with intense pain. Then, a shrill scream fills his ears. It's Susanna.

• 31:20John Hopkins?

  Meanwhile, Tomasz lies a few feet away, still and silent. The lightning has flung the three friends asunder, and right now it's not clear if they've all made it.

• 31:32Speaker 01

  And Susanna, she was panicking, shouting, screaming. She was obviously somehow hurt. But at least she was there, she was kind of present. That was a really scary moment, was that Tomasz was completely silent, not moving, nothing. And I was like, "Tomasz, are you there? Are you there?"

• 31:53Speaker 01

  And then, in a really slow voice, he said, "Oh, I'm alive, I'm here."

• 32:00John Hopkins?

  Relief washes over Andre. But there's little time to get sentimental. The storm is still exploding all around, lightning bolts still striking the very ground they're laying on.

• 32:14John Hopkins?

  After some time, the pain in Andre's legs lessens to a mild cramp and a tingling. He is able to move again.

• 32:24John Hopkins?

  But one look at his friends shows they have not been so lucky. Susanna is writhing on the ground in shock, while Tomas is too weak to move a muscle.

• 32:35John Hopkins?

  If they don't get away from this exposed plain soon, they risk being struck a second time.

• 32:42John Hopkins?

  And so it falls to Andre, the de facto leader of this group, to make sense of the chaos around and to take his friends to safety.

• 32:51Speaker 01

  Imagine you have a box of matches and you smash it on the ground and it's kind of all over the place. So first thing I tried to do is collect the kind of items that were around us, like the backpacks and the shelter. And I tried to build like a small ledge on that steep slope, so at least we have something we could sit on. So then I dragged them to that ledge and I tried to put a shelter above their head. And there was this really strong feeling, like I have never experienced that since, that the adrenaline was pouring out of my ears. Like you feel at this moment so energized, so rushed just to save us somehow.

• 33:37John Hopkins?

  Andre works quickly in the storm, collecting their waterproofs and sleeping bags and constructing a makeshift shelter. So focused is he that he pays no attention to the torrents of rain or the wind numbing his hands or the roars of thunder above.

• 33:53John Hopkins?

  Andre treks back and forth, up and down the slippery slopes, dragging his friends to the shelter. Each time he ventures out into the open, he has to dodge the deadly lances of lightning that dance in his path.

• 34:06John Hopkins?

  It's exhausting, backbreaking work.

• 34:12John Hopkins?

  Andre's been outside for almost nine hours by now and has miles of hiking in his legs. There's no way he'll be able to keep this up for much longer.

• 34:22John Hopkins?

  But he and his friends' lives depend on it, so he pushes on.

• 34:29John Hopkins?

  Finally, after half an hour from hell, Susanna and Tomesh are safe in the temporary shelter, protected by waterproofs and camping gear and kept warm by blankets.

• 34:41John Hopkins?

  Andre takes advantage of their momentary safety to step outside and make a call to mountain rescue.

• 34:48John Hopkins?

  But just as the phone is answered, something truly unbelievable happens.

• 34:54John Hopkins?

  Lightning strikes twice.

• 35:01Speaker 01

  As I had this dispatcher of the mountain rescue on my line, there was a second lightning that hit. Luckily, it was a small one, but imagine you are calling mountain rescue and then suddenly you kind of scream out of the pain into the phone, because you get another electric charge into your body. Susanna later told me that she saw like a spark going from my hand down to the earth, like half meter long electric spark. It was very intense.

• 35:32John Hopkins?

  The odds of getting struck by lightning once are low, but twice in less than an hour? Perhaps Andre should buy a lottery ticket if he gets out of this.

• 35:44John Hopkins?

  Vaults of electricity course through his veins, singeing the hair and skin on his arm. He flexes the fingers in his hands and gently bends his arm back and forth.

• 35:56John Hopkins?

  By some miracle, he is OK.

• 36:01John Hopkins?

  But the good news only stretches so far. On the other end of the phone, the mountain rescue team informs Andre that their location is too remote to guarantee an immediate rescue. It will take at least two hours to get a team out to them.

• 36:17John Hopkins?

  Two more hours stranded on the side of the mountain. Will Tomasz and Susanna make it that long? Will he? All Andre could do now is huddle up with his friends and hope.

• 36:30Speaker 01

  That was, I think, the most terrifying part. Three of us sitting on the ledge. You are completely a disposal of the nature. You can't do anything, because the friends, they couldn't move. You don't have this adrenaline rush anymore. And you are sitting there and there are these lightnings hit us all around, yeah? And then you start to have these thoughts that basically, well, maybe we are going to die. My kid should be born in three weeks. Maybe I will not be part of that anymore.

• 37:02John Hopkins?

  As the doubts and the fears creep in, the friends agree to stay as a group. Whatever happens, they will face it together.

• 37:12Speaker 01

  You are at the mercy of mother nature of the storm, that you are totally insignificant from the perspective of what is happening around you. This was really the scariest 45 minutes of my life.

• 37:32John Hopkins?

  Andre, Susanna and Tomasz are drained, drenched and deserted in a vast wilderness.

• 37:40John Hopkins?

  Every second passes more slowly than the last.

• 37:45John Hopkins?

  But then, finally, a reprieve.

• 37:50John Hopkins?

  The thunder rumbles off into the distance and the blinding flashes of lightning fade. The wind and rain are replaced by wispy clouds in a pale blue sky as a glimmer of sun breaks through.

• 38:07Speaker 01

  When the storm passed, it was suddenly, it kind of became like magical because you had this start of the sunset. So you have this really warm sun coming in. Clouds disappeared, so you just see these patches of mist evaporating from the hills. And suddenly, it seemed so peaceful and quiet, like nothing had happened.

• 38:35John Hopkins?

  And there's more welcome news. On a slope above, two distant dots are growing larger by the second. As the dots move closer to the stricken friends, they morph into two human figures, other hikers.

• 38:51John Hopkins?

  Andre frantically waves to them, calling for them to come over.

• 38:56John Hopkins?

  When the hikers descend from the trail and reach the makeshift shelter, they quickly clock the weakened condition of Susanna and Tomasz. They explain that there's a ledge on the trail above which is far more protected and offers better shelter from the weather should another storm break out.

• 39:14John Hopkins?

  Once again, Andre digs deep into his energy reserves and sets about moving his friends to higher ground.

• 39:22John Hopkins?

  Together, he and the two newcomers stumble up the hill along its rutted, slippery paths, carrying Susanna and Tomasz to relative safety.

• 39:31Speaker 01

  After the storm finished, we were more focused on the very basic things like, "Are you warm? Do you want to eat something?"

• 39:40John Hopkins?

  Little by little, Tomasz and Susanna are made comfortable. But there's still no knowing how far away rescue is.

• 39:49John Hopkins?

  The sun slips below the mountains, dying the sky first orange, then purple, then a dark navy.

• 39:57John Hopkins?

  The five hikers stare out into the darkening abyss, praying their rescuers will arrive before nightfall.

• 40:09John Hopkins?

  Eventually, growing impatient of waiting, Andre wanders further down the mountain to look out for the S and R team. He wants to ensure they're not missed.

• 40:19John Hopkins?

  He treks a few hundred feet past the rocky ledge that was first struck by lightning, beyond the shelter he made for his friends, and onto an entirely deserted part of the peak.

• 40:30John Hopkins?

  And as he does, a smile of relief stretches across his face.

• 40:38John Hopkins?

  Three tiny trucks are speeding towards him in the distance. It's the rescue team.

• 40:47John Hopkins?

  It's at this moment, with the end in sight, that Andre allows himself to take his phone out of his jacket pocket and make an important call.

• 40:57Speaker 01

  I decided I will give a call to my wife. And I just kind of told her kind of what happened. And that was the moment when I was really kind of broke into tears because you, all this tension and all this kind of adrenaline, that was like, it was gone. Kind of realized that kind of what I lost almost, I lost the time of, you know, being with my kids and with her. That was really, really emotional moment for me.

• 41:28John Hopkins?

  With his wife on the end of the line, Andre watches the rescuers approach. When they arrive, he stuffs his phone back in his pocket and jogs alongside the team, guiding them to the ledge where his friends are waiting.

• 41:43John Hopkins?

  More help shows up, a mixture of mountain rescue professionals and volunteers. They get to work quickly, wrapping Susanna and Tomasz in aluminium blankets to keep them warm, before strapping them onto stretches.

• 41:59John Hopkins?

  It's still a challenge from here, traversing the narrow, gnarly trails while carrying two injured individuals as the darkness grows.

• 42:07Speaker 01

  You are still in quite technical, steep terrain, so it's not that easy to carry a person down. So you need like six people per stretcher, sometimes four if it is really narrow. They started to carry them down, and it took a while, but maybe after forty-five minutes, one hour, they were able to carry them down to a grassy saddle area where a helicopter can land.

• 42:36John Hopkins?

  Andre walks behind the stretches, chatting to the rescue team as he goes. It's almost 9pm, and they're reliant on the feeble beams of their head torches to make out the path. Progress is slow but steady, and when they eventually reach the saddle, a helicopter is already hovering above.

• 42:56John Hopkins?

  A wire dangles down from the rotorcraft, and Andre's friends are attached and reeled in before being flown to the nearest hospital.

• 43:11John Hopkins?

  This November, on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling plays out in the mist and after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews and in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.

• 43:54John Hopkins?

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad free on Noiser Plus.

• 44:03John Hopkins?

  This November on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist and after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews and in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.

• 44:46John Hopkins?

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noiser's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November the 1st to the 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26.

• 45:17John Hopkins?

  Though he has been out in formidable weather for over 12 hours and has been struck by lightning twice, Andre assures the rescue team that he's physically fine. He says he'll make his own way to the hospital.

• 45:33John Hopkins?

  A few hours later, Andre sits on a gurney, a doctor checking him over.

• 45:39John Hopkins?

  It's confirmed that, astonishingly, his injuries aren't serious.

• 45:45John Hopkins?

  His friends, however, have been somewhat less fortunate.

• 45:50Speaker 01

  Tomas got kind of the highest load or biggest hit because he was really weak and he could barely speak. He didn't have any obvious injury, but it was really clear that he is not in a good shape in a way that he was really weak, unable to move by himself. Susanna, she had more serious burns because if you have like an iron buckle or a zip or something like that from the metal, then usually these are the easiest places where the lightning gets into your body.

• 46:24Speaker 01

  My wife especially, she started calling me "unbreakable". When I came with the rescuers, she saw like, "You look like nothing happened to you. What's wrong with you? Are you unbreakable?"

• 46:37John Hopkins?

  Unbreakable he might be, but Andre doesn't credit his survival to any personal or physical attributes. Instead, he believes it was mainly down to luck, as well as a profound sense of purpose he felt when he saw his friends in trouble.

• 46:52Speaker 01

  I can vividly recall that I felt this tremendous responsibility for, not on myself, but for my friends that, okay, I'm the one that needs to act now, that needs to do something, and not kind of be occupied with the panic or with the fear.

• 47:15John Hopkins?

  Andre's actions on the mountain undoubtedly helped to save the lives of Susanna and Tomas. Thankfully, none of their injuries are long-lasting, and all three friends are able to return to their normal lives within months, even eventually making it back into the wilderness when time allows it.

• 47:34Speaker 01

  I haven't stopped going out there to outdoors, to the mountains, but I'm definitely more cautious about storms. And I have this kind of a set of rules in my mind that now I'm really thoroughly applied. So last time, we're again in other parts of the Tatra's. And I said to my friend that whenever we hear the thunder nearby, we turn around and go. So I'm very much conscious about it. But you can still enjoy mountains despite this kind of experience.

• 48:07John Hopkins?

  Just three weeks after the lightning strikes, Andre celebrates the birth of his second child.

• 48:14John Hopkins?

  He names him Tomasz, and he welcomes his baby boy into the world with a renewed respect and gratitude for life.

• 48:23Speaker 01

  Especially these first minutes after the lightning. It was so terrible, painful, scary. I definitely became very grateful for what I have in my life, because you really, really realize how you can lose everything you care about in a second to this sense of gratefulness I carry ever since.

• 48:59John Hopkins?

  Next time on Real Survival Stories, we hear the story of the biggest offshore disaster in history.

• 49:06John Hopkins?

  In the summer of 1988, 29-year-old Joe Minnan is stationed on the Piper Alpha, an oil rig in the North Sea. It's one of the busiest rigs in the world, a round-the-clock drilling operation. But in July 1988, a catastrophic fire breaks out on the platform, and the 226 people stationed on board will be thrust into a hell on earth.

• 49:30Speaker 04

  All of a sudden, there was a huge explosion. The whole platform rocked back and forward. We actually didn't know what had happened. You just knew something horrendous had happened.

• 49:44John Hopkins?

  That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen right now without waiting a week by subscribing to Noiser Plus. This November on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews.

• 50:29John Hopkins?

  And in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus. And for our American listeners, a special offer on Noiser's debut book, A Short History of Ancient Rome. Head to bookshop.org and use the code NONFIC26 for 15% off. Valid for US customers November 1st to 30th. That's bookshop.org and use the code N-O-N-F-I-C-26.

• 51:06John Hopkins?

  This November on the Noiser Podcast Network. On Real Dictators, the story of Rafael Trujillo concludes with an epic shootout scene, plucked straight from a mafia movie. On Short History of, join us as we unthor Utsi the Iceman, Europe's oldest known natural human mummy, and step back into the swinging 60s. On Real Survival Stories, on Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain, a chilling tale plays out in the mist. And after a volcanic eruption in New Zealand, a helicopter pilot scrambles to respond. In Jane Austen stories, Emma continues with Dame Julie Andrews. And in Sherlock Holmes' short stories, the tale of hidden treasure and murder continues in The Sign of Four.

• 51:49John Hopkins?

  Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noiser Plus.