Storm on Illinizas

We started off great on Illinizas N. today. moving fast and feeling good we stopped around 4900m to take in the view (although foggy) and have a drink. After moving for about 5 min. a strange pulse came over my head. It felt like a wave of energy all the way through my forhead and down to my neck. At first thinking something was wrong with me I stopped. Within what felt like 2 sec. later a huge boom of thunder shook us all. We looked at eachother and realized an electrical storm was near. Strange things started. Hair was standing on end, static was building up in our hiking poles, and it was time to move. now running down we bolted (no pun intended). As I caught up to Steve I heard a very noticable buzzing. I thought is was my mp3 player. Asking him if he heard it I took out my earbuds. Billy came behind me, he heard it clearly. It was the rocks buzzing with static due to the ferrous material within them. Now we were scared. taking an alternate gully than our up route we literally ran down, throwing poles as we couldnt hang on to them when the static built up. dropping to the ground each time we felt the electricity and heard the thunder. Finally we made it safely to the refuge for relief after our ordeal.
We are all back safe now at Pappagayo. Unfortunately we didnt summit, but did get high enough for acclimatizing in order to go for Cotopaxi on Tuesday.
sp

Our view going up Illinizas N. just before the storm