Quick as a flash, our alpine trek was over

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Narrated by James Marriott

I recently had the novel experience of being stuck with no shelter at high altitude as a thunderstorm descended out of nowhere on to a mountain. At first, it was rather exciting. We were bathed in blinding flashes of light and the cracks of thunder above our heads grew deafening. Instinct told us to hurry but it was at least an hour’s walk to the cable car that would take us down.

So we jogged. The thunderclaps grew louder; between them we could hear cows lowing and the jingling of the bells they wore around their necks. They were all on the move, following the path ahead of us across a sloping meadow.

There were metal chairlift towers across the meadow and we assumed the