When Justin Eggleston regained consciousness near the top of Mount Elbert, he turned to his girlfriend and asked in a panic: "What happened?"

Her answer: "You were struck by lightning."



Eggleston, 28, of Boulder, had just peaked his first fourteener with his girlfriend, Jamie Willett, also a 28-year-old Boulder resident, about 2:40 p.m. Sunday. They started to descend after spotting some ominous clouds.

But before they could get below treeline, "It started raining and hailing and lightning all around us," Eggleston said Wednesday night from his hospital bed in St. Anthony's Medical Center in Summit County.

"We were coming down the mountain, and the next thing I knew I woke up and my girlfriend, Jamie, was coming up and hugging me," he said.

Willett wasn't the only person who saw the bolt strike Eggleston's head. A doctor from Aspen was also descending the mountain. He and other climbers helped Eggleston walk down the peak — a slow descent that took more than two hours.

"They gave me some goo packs because my muscles were cramping," Eggleston said.

Before long, Eggleston said, he couldn't feel his feet, hands or lips. He said he could hear everything people were saying, but he couldn't respond. When he realized the gravity of what had happened, Eggleston said, he started to hyperventilate and cry.

"They tried to keep me concentrated on my breathing," he said.

Once they returned to the trailhead, Eggleston was rushed to the hospital. Paramedics checked his heart and brain and found no damage. But when they looked at the protein in his muscles, they found skyrocketing levels, Eggleston said.

"That means I took a direct lightning-bolt strike," he said.

Eggleston said he has been experiencing pain in muscles on the right side of his body and in his neck and head. Still, he's expected to make a full recovery, and he hopes to leave the hospital Friday.

Sunday's climb was Eggleston's first attempt at a 14,000-foot peak, and he said it's still hard to believe that he barely lived to tell of his success.

Even when the lightning started to crash, "I never thought we might be hit," he said.

Willett said she suffered a slight jolt from the strike and fell to her knees.

"It was frightening," she said. "I never experienced anything like that in my life — almost losing a loved one right in front of you."

She called the experience "life-changing."

Eggleston said he hopes people learn from his accident.

"You should be coming down the mountain at noon, not summiting at 3 p.m.," he said. "A storm can brew in seconds. Even if you see white clouds, don't take it lightly. It can be a serious matter."

Contact Camera Staff Writer Vanessa Miller at 303-473-1329 or millerv@dailycamera.com.