> I've been on mountain peaks on nice summer days when storms appear as out of nowhere (not the typical afternoon rains), and there's lightning, high winds, and 50ºF temperature swings. In that kind of situation, things can turn very dangerous very quickly. Stuff that you take for granted suddenly isn't true any more: some rock which is rough and gives great traction suddenly gets slippery, winds that come from a prevailing direction suddenly come from somewhere else and the formerly sheltered areas aren't any more, clouds and fogs may come in and visibility may drop to zero.

Even hiking out here in the Appalachians the swiftness of the arrival of thunderstorms has caught me offguard a few times. You can go from sun to hail, blistering wind gusts, and lightning in short succession, and if you're on a high bald you really may have nowhere to hide.

As the essay above hints at, this potential danger is part of why we seek these places out. When you follow the happy path, you get exercise, views, solitude... all rewarding of course. But being apart from the safety net of civilization can put you on a knife's edge. You can find yourself off that happy path surprisingly quickly - and for the adrenaline junkies among us, it's part of why we're out there.

(Maybe ops engineers, or old school sysadmins, can somewhat relate...)