Missing climbers

“Everything that I have seen is suggestive of there being no news. The storm out there is a beast. Surface winds have reached hurricane strength from CNN.com reports. The last ceiling level I saw reported was less than 7000 ft. They could take man, beast nor machine above that level. The AF had grounded all its resources in the area because of the storm and no private firms were able to deploy.

The next break in the weather looks like tomorrow or Sunday from what I have read.”

“I read winds are supposed to calm down today but that it is getting cold and dumping snow at lower elevations...”

“Update.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061215/ap_on_re_us/missing_climbers”

“I read they're going to try to make a rescue tomorrow.”

“this was on larry king for about an hour last night - everybody seemed pretty upbeat.

Really - they should be ok - assuming they have the ability to make water and are in a snow cave they should be ok. those are pretty big 'should bes' though - but they are all three experienced and apparantly pretty fit people, so they have good odds.

I hope they are found snug and cramped in a snow cave, or hiking down when the weather breaks.”

“I continue to monitor the cascadeclimbers website. It is interesting to compare their dysfunctional family to ours.

This was a story related by one of their regulars:

I once went up in conditions less than these looking for a single person. It was quite the interesting story and somewhat germane to this situation so I’ll tell it.

I get a call at home like 2am from a friend and get a ride up to Timberline with a Sheriff's deputy. As we ride up to the mountain and we’re bull#&%!$ing about this or that the weather came up. A climbing buddy of mine had been talking about doing the route same day, I’m musing that I hope my buddy was OK. Deputy says “Whats his name”, uhhh, Mike Lake (posts on Supertopo as Rockermike), I respond, so he radios dispatch and a groggy Mike gets a phone call from a deputy at 3am. Asks him what route he’d done (Steel Cliffs solo), and had he seen anybody, he had, and described everything he saw and exactly where the person was (heading up as Mike was heading down). Turns out that Mike and this guy were the only 2 people on the mountain that day cause a storm was coming in. Mike knew about the weather and thought he could get up and down, which he did. Kid had no clue. Thought Mt Hood was an easy mountain to climb. (which it can be but he was up there in the dead of winter when fierce pacific storms will crap all over your happy face) Dude was some kid from California who didn’t have extensive experience like these guys up there now, but he could afford good gear which he had in spades as it turned out and factors heavily into this tale.

1st thing the deputy did as we get into the parking lot (wind pushing the flakes semi-sideways - @30-40 MPH) was walk over and slim jim the kids car and go through it throughly. Then we walked into the register area and found the climbing paper the kid had filled out. For gear, he had not marked sleeping bag, stove or shovel. 3 key things that the rescuers would be thinking of for days. Various people are all milling around, the weather outside is #&%!$. Somehow later (my memory sucks, it might have been 2 days I don’t know) I wrangle my way onto a team heading where I had thought all along that the kid really is. See, the mountain is really a large area, you can’t walk a straight line and expect that you’ve covered it, you have to grid it out and you’re checking where the hell over to the left and way the hell over to the right and everything in between. Searching is slower than climbing. Anyway, we get organized then jump into snow cats (those of us heading to the farther areas) and off we went. As the cat is pumping up, I’m thinking WTF am I doing here? The F*en driver has his windshield wipers whipping and we can’t see sh*t but white flakes pounding the glass in the storm. I don’t know how he gets us up there but he does a phenomenal job of driving and doesn’t kill us, gets up past to about the Palmer and let’s us out. We almost get blown over shaking the rope and tying it on so we don’t get separated. Wind gusts to 40-50 mph, much less than currently. Maybe you can see 6-10’, if that, but not very well. We walk up the lip of the White River Canyon; I can almost taste it in my mind that the kid was there. We stop every 10-20 steps and blow whistles and yell. Only the howling of the wind replies. I was thinking that I should have been on the slop of the canyon, which is pretty damn steep right there with waist deep snow, but can barely make traction in the conditions on the relatively wind blown ridge. I’ve probably climbed this route on Hood 25 times at that point, but on this trip, I mostly remember just wanting my team and I to be able to get back safely, and I had my doubts about that. So I passed on thrashing through the deep snow on the canyon wall.

Eventually the search dribbles off to nothingness as people need to go back to work and get on with their lives. It is, for all intents and purposes, called off and ended on like day 4. Kid must be dead eh? Day 5 dawns clear and cold. There are 2 of us volunteers still there, no deputies, no helicopters, no news cameras. Kid fuc*king walks right into the Timberline aid station on his own power at about 8 in the morning. We had been so beat the previous day that we’d slept in and were just shaking the cobwebs out of our brains and settling in for a cup of Joe. Shocked the hell out of us.

5 days in a snow cave. He was weak, dehydrated. Most amazing thing I saw was the kid’s feet. He’d bought a new pair of plastic boots (I still owned leather as it was the best I could afford). His feet were almost dead white and wrinkly, like he’d been in a bathtub for an extreme amount of time, but he had NO frostbite. Amazing. His core temp was down, and he was dehydrated, but otherwise he was fine.

The story he told (when the other volunteer, an older fella, got done yelling and screaming at him for endangering everybody’s lives and being a punk asswipe or something like that) was that the weather broke bad as he was just summiting the south side. He’d stumbled down the Hogsback and missed the jog he needed to make to get the Timberline Lodge in his sights. He’d stepped into air where White River Canyon was and did about 2 somersaults and in a dazed and confused state choose to get out the shovel (which he had not marked on his climbing check out), and dug himself a snow cave. The right thing to do.

In talking it over with him, I figure we may have been as close as 15-20 feet away from where he was hunkered down in a cave. He thought he might have heard “something” but he dismissed it as the wind and delusions.

So, my point is 2 fold, where do you want to look for the 2 guys who had gone for help? The rescuers had been cutting for tracks earlier lower down in the obvious places. They could have summited and wandered over Missippi head 7 miles on the other side or so. 2nd) If you could stand up, which you can’t, you’re going to have to crawl to the exact point where this remaining fella is. It is similar to searching for a needle in a haystack as you don’t even really know which route they jumped on. I suspect it’s the left hand North Face Gully. As that route is a basic avalanche chute, and these are perfect avy conditions, who is gonna crawl up it? Ain’t me bubba, not even if my momma herself was crying out for help up there. Sorry Mama! Maybe dropping down off the top could be do able, but you won’t be able to get up there in these conditions unless you’re feeling suicidal.

My story, which was @ 22 or so years ago, we knew which route the dude was on, had a visual confirmation of an exact spot. It was the easiest route on the Mt. We had lots and lots of searchers looking for days. Then the kid walks out on his own after the search is over. It's not that easy like you describe. It's not.

Say a prayer for good weather, believe that everybody up there is doing all they can. Skilled people can always be used, do hitch up, call them and help out.”

“if they find them do they get the Bill?”

“From CNN.com:

"At a news conference, Bernard pointed to a handwritten note the climbers purposely left at a ranger station before they started their climb last week.

It said the climbers took gear such as food, fuel, bivouac sacks, a shovel and ropes, all of which could be helpful as the three hunkered down in the storms."

At least they were properly equipped. An aggressive search is planned for today if the weather breaks. The ANG C-130 with thermal imaging capability has been up but did not detect any heat signature. If they are in a snow cave the heat signature might not be visible according to one official.”

“I'm assuming that these guys had the climbers' insurance that covers the charges of rescue if required.

Plus, its appearing they didn't do anything wrong?”

“is there really such insurance?”

“I read the weather is clearing enough for them to send 3 helicopters up...”

“I just read a bunch on that website.

Gave me a lot more hope. Also, it sounds like today's the day for a rescue.”

“Yes, I've seen insurance that covers climbers during rescues. Its relatively cheap too.”

“Good thoughts and prayers to the climbers and SAR teams.


Probably 95% of those rescued never see a bill. When they are presented with a bill, it's usually due to extreme negligence of a phony search.

There is a story about a rescue in Alaska where a couple climbers were pulled off Denali, I think. As they were being flown back in the chopper the pilot asked what happened....one bozo replied that they were really not in that bad a shape, but they wanted to get back in time to watch the Super Bowl.....BIG BILL.

Another involved a women in Yosemite that used her cell phone to call for a rescue.....she was tired.

I know that in Northern CA, we never billed an individual directly. . It is figured into the cost of running your local government. We often "ran out of money" budgeted for SAR in the first couple months of the year...but they always had enough to keep things going. When I asked once I was told that, we don't their bill county if they don't bill our county. I'm sure there were many other reasons, but that seemed to be the basic explanation

I was never privy to the in's and outs of funding, but thats my basic understanding.”

“This is another cut-n-paste from cascadeclimbers. The bottom line is that any of us (at least the ones who actually go into the backcountry) could easily have ended up in this situation and we could be reading this stuff about "one of ours". These guys didn't do anything stupid nor were they unprepared. Personally I would rather have my money go to helping these guys out that other things which I could mention (but then this thread could turn rapidly to fugeo):

"There will much discussion about the costs of this rescue. Here are some facts about rescue costs from a detailed 2005 study by The American Alpine Club.

The title is: "Climbing Rescues in America: Reality Does Not Support High-Risk, High-Cost Perception". For you speed readers there is a nice summary on page 1, which is too long to paste here.

This information will be useful if/when you find yourself talking to a "those crazy climbers, using my taxpayers $$$ to get rescued . . ." sort of person. (Any reporters who are reading this, please have a look as well. =^)

Link:
http://www.americanalpineclub.org/pdfs/MRreal.pdf”

“nothing new has been updated on CNN. It's about 3pm there inOR. I hope things are going ok and that they have found them. I've been sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to hear something about this all day.”

“Me, too. I was hanging on the web, but finally talked myself into taking advantage of a nice hike, right at a cloudy sunset on ground that seems to have frost going out.

But... I just tuned back in and nada. And they've turned back for today.

Here's a good place for updates:

http://www.oregonlive.com/newslogs/oregonian/”

“Hey climbers...

Is it likely the other two guys who were supposedly continuing down would have gone back tot he snow cave when the weather turned bad? Might they all be together?”

“Forward this link to Rush, Nancy Grace, Mike Savage, CNN, CBS, etc, etc.”

“The weather was relatively decent today. If the climber's were still alive they should have been found. Sunday the weather should be another opportunity. If they don't come out Sunday, sorry.”

“hope tomorrow will look better.”

“You guys see the story the Oregonian about the three boys in 1976 who were stuck in an ice cave for something like 13 days?”

“yeah, I've read it.”

“Heard this p.m. that some 80 rescue pros are attempting tomorrow (Sun) on two sides. Includes Blackhawk and Shinook helis. Needles in a haystack, nonetheless. They'll either walk out or not be found til spring - God forbid!

I'm sure the party was prepared for the worst, anything else would be folly.”

“http://www.oregonlive.com/newslogs/oregonian/

"Still, Hood yielded another clue: Black Hawk helicopters spotted an apparent piece of climbing equipment in the fading light about 300 feet from the top. It was enough to renew hopes that the men — Kelly James, Brian Hall and Jerry “Nikko” Cooke — might yet be found alive."

They will try again today if the weather allows.”

“Hopefully good news today.”

“watching this one closely today...”

“http://www.oregonlive.com/newslogs/oregonian/

"Officials said they have information that has narrowed the scope of the search, but they will not disclose what that information is.

-clip-

We found some very positive things up there," said Deputy Sean Collinson of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office. "That is what we have to look into to determine if we can see these thigns close up and if we can do it safely."”

“We've been waiting for this, also from www.oregon.live.com:

Sunday, December 17, 2006

BREAKING NEWS: Searchers find signs of climbers
A helicopter surveying the Mount Hood summit this morning has captured images of what appears to be a snow cave, scattered equipment and what looks like frozen tracks in the snow.

Search organizers plan to airlift pararescuers to the summit by helicopter so they can make their way to the area by foot.”

“CNN has live video of the peak now (2:03)”

“Still live. Said they'll be dropping SAR climbers on the peak soon. Live video. Live interview continuing with a law enforcement/SAR officer”

“Liz goes live!!”

“The latest:

Holy crap! They found a snow cave, near the so-called "Y".... found stuff, including a sleeping bag... and NOBODY.

They will continue searching...”

“Hope they are making way down the hill and didn't get avalanched off. Godspeed.”

“Ground search will be suspended around 4 pm pacific. SAR at the summit will be airlifted down. The items recovered in and around the snow cave will be assessed and plans made from there.”

“National media doesn't have this yet. I've been following the Cascade Climbers board and someone just posted this, linking to KATU TV, one climber found dead:

BREAKING NEWS: One climber found dead. Portland Mountain Rescue officials confirmed Sunday afternoon that crews found the body of one climber in a snow cave different from one that officials zeroed in on earlier in the day.

EDIT: Now Fox News also has. Sheeyat, was hoping it wasn't true.
last edited: 12/17/06 5:48:21 PM”

“NBC as well now.. Sad day. Praying for the others.”

“that's really sad... I hope the other two are ok.

I wonder if the body they found was that of James from Dallas.
last edited: 12/17/06 6:13:39 PM”

“Unfortunately.. it looks like this may become a recovery mission. So sad.”

“(@^#$#&@%$#&#(^&@$%@)*#$%$#. I watched the CNN Live broadcast quite awhile today, hoping beyond hope for the best. When the release came that they said they found a sleeping bag, a couple ice axes & a rope but no climbers, my heart sank.

These were all young guys,#@&$#. Yes, I know they haven't found the other two yet, but the realistic part of me is starting to take over from the optimistic part.

BE CAREFUL out there you guys!”

“I was gone most of the day, just now turned to CNN. So sad!”

“there is so little room for error in the winter. I was before this story, feeling really confident in my winter abilities. Here are three very experienced climbers who ran into serious trouble and now one of them is dead and the other two still missing. This really makes me want to re-appraise my abilities and stay extra careful when I am out there in extreme elements.”

“Well said, ENS. Sometimes we all have to question our ability. I like to think I am ten feet tall and bullet proof. Lately, I doubt that.”

“One found dead...heartbreaking.....”

“That's rough, guys.

Word of advice, ENS.

Bobo
(good man to have around)”

“sometimes the excitement of the undertaking overrides commonsense and the neglect thereof is a risk not worth taking. I'm very grateful for those who I go hiking with who many times veto my hairbrain ideas.”

“Ha ha, I remember you scurrying all the way out on those rocks on the North Fork Trail.
I hauled ass a long way to get within earshot of you and didn't do nearly the rock-scampering that you did and it wore me right out.

The name of the rocks escapes me.”

“sad news”

“Thoughts and prayers go to the families and climbers. I hope for a safe return for the other two. God Bless the family of the deceased climber........Why do I feel so heavy, so connected to this story? Everybody stay safe, stay warm, stay hydrated!

Chimney rock Marko..
last edited: 12/17/06 7:24:27 PM”

“I've been sick but hopeful,and still for the other two?

They must not of had a gps or locator and that's a shame..because they had cell phone.

What i dont also understand is they keep the twinblade making noise all day...after the 180 heat seeker found nothing in the morning after the the cave was found?”