Distinctly Montana Magazine

24 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 3 H unkered against a block of granite with the sky rent by thunderbolts, my wife, Diana, suggests I have insufficient regard for lightning. Wiping the rain from my glasses, I say, "I sure do today." "What about the time you didn't want to leave that stream as a storm bore down on us?" "Hey, the trout were rising to a thick hatch of mayflies! Be- sides, it really depends on geography," I respond. Here, near the summit of Prospector Peak, one of many 10,000-foot peaks in the Tobacco Root Range, I understand the angst in her voice. I've shared Diana's queasy feelings when the sky turns greenish black and snuffs out the sun. From years of mountaineering and rock climbing, I've gained respect for storms on mountaintops that I obviously don't possess in the lowlands. I think the difference comes from a history of close calls at altitude. One unsettling episode was in the high country of Wyoming on an exposed ridge (not unlike this one where Diana and I are pinned). I had hiked to the top of an alpine ridge where I'd spot- ted some elk the previous day. I wanted to observe the bunch of cows and calves. After cresting the ridge, I crept down the other side until I spied them in a glade below. Several cows were bedded in dappled sunlight beneath a scatter of conifers. Others casually cropped sprouting delicacies while their calves frolicked nearby. Some calves sprinted and dodged haphazardly as though afterburners had been lit. Two others butted heads in mock combat. Their white spots shone like sun drops on rusty flanks, as they jousted in an emerald meadow. LIGHTNING IN THE WILD article and photos by BRUCE SMITH "LIGHTNING IN THE WILD" IS ADAPTED FROM BRUCE SMITH'S BOOK STORIES FROM AFIELD: ADVENTURES WITH WILD THINGS IN WILD PLACES LIGHTNING WILD

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