Tahoe brothers survive lightning strike.

Three Tahoe-area brothers were struck by lightning while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail near Skykomish, Washington.

Three Brothers

Austin, Dylan and Garrett Murtha set out June 28 to hike the entire PCT south from the Canadian border when they began to scramble down a granite face as storm clouds approached last week, said Greg Murtha, the boys' father.

"It was a 15- to 20-minute lightning storm," he told KCRA by phone. "Austin was thrown 15 feet by the force of the strike. He was unconscious for seven minutes. My oldest son revived him ... and they hiked out 60 miles to Skykomish and the cardiologist said he was lucky as hell he survived."

Videos sent to KCRA3 by the Murtha family show red scars on Austin's leg where the lightning shredded his shorts, his hat and his poncho. A portion of his cold-weather jacket appeared to have melted.

Scars on the leg

Austin

"(My hat) exploded off my head. I don't even know," said Austin in one of the videos.

The brothers did not let the incident deter them from their quest to hike the entire 2,650-mile north to south route. The trio continued their journey after seeing a doctor who performed an EKG on Austin.

"Austin picked up the trail name 'Tone' from other hikers, because he couldn't hear anything for three days due to the ringing in his ears," Greg Murtha said.

The trio is expected to pass through the Tahoe area around Labor Day with an expected completion of the entire journey by the end of October. They are carrying camera equipment document and create a virtual reality tour of the PCT for Greg Murtha's Xplorit company.

"I got struck by lightning. I'm alive. That's a good thing right?" said Austin Murtha.

How to survive a lightning strike.

- shared from internet resource.