One Climber Found Dead in Second Snow Cave on Mount Hood

FNC ^ | December 17, 2006

[Kaslin]

HOOD RIVER, Ore. — The body of one of the three climbers who have been missing for 10 days on Mount Hood was discovered in a snow cave late Sunday afternoon.

Rescuers dropped search teams near the mountain's 11,239-foot summit from a CH-47 Chinook helicopter flown by pilots who had served in Afghanistan and Iraq. The pararescue team members scaled 300 feet down the nearly vertical face of the northeastern face of the mountain to reach a snow cave that was spotted earlier in the day.

The team discovered two ice axes, some rope and a sleeping bag in the cave. The body was discovered in a second cave nearby, officials said.

There has been no word from climbers Kelly James, Brian Hall or Jerry "Nikko" Cooke since Dec. 10 when James made a distress call to family members. A cell phone tower picked up a signal from James' cell phone on Tuesday that appeared to have originated from the vicinity of the snow cave.

[tutstar]

This has already been posted and pulled from breaking news.

[ImAmericanFirst]

This one's for the Central Time Zone

[michigander]

Get a clue. Why would you ;ock the other thread in favor of this one?

[Salvation]

Oregon Ping

Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Oregon Ping List.

[Jay777]

I wonder why it was pulled? It IS breaking news!

[Halls]

got me, strange!

[Jay777]

Probably because this one had an excerpt of the news? Still why pull it from 'breaking news"?

[Uncle Hal]

I know it is Monday morning quarterbacking but, why were they climbimg this time of year. Particularly since the weather in the NW has been so brutal this year. I realize they are experienced climbers but to me, who knows nothing about climbing, it seems strange.

[WV Mountain Mama]

I believe it was said they were preparing for Everest.

[Screamname]

How can helicopters stay aloft at that altitude?

[Kaslin]

Please change Washington to Oregon. For some reason I keep thinking Mount Hood is in Washington State

[CWOJackson]

Precariously.

[Sir_Ed]

Oh, how sad.

My girlfriend's Dad lawyer in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, is friends with one of these guys, who is also a bay Ridge lawyer, and we have all been praying so hard for them...

I am so sad about this. I've never mountain climbed, but I was a Forest Ranger in Alaska, a Ranger in Yellowstone and I used to go patrolling in cold, dangerous conditions like those all the time.

One time I had hyperthermia in Alaska, while building the Ressurection River Pass trail in Seward, that was so bad my hands and arms didn't work, and I couldn't speak properly, and I have felt so bad for these guys, imagining what they are going through...

Ed

[Kaslin]

I checked with two different browsers if the article was already posted and didn't find anything. That is why I posted it in breaking news

[Jay777]

For what little hope there is that the others will be found alive, I am spreading a prayer request to the blogs and online community.

[eyespysomething]

FWIW (being newsreaders, and they have been wrong before, lol) on Fox News they were saying the Chinooks were the only ones that could hover like that at those altitudes, something about the double rotors. The Blackhawk can fly at those altitudes and higher but not sit like the Chinook was.

[Mom MD]

This would be a tune-up climb for more difficult climbs in the spring (denali, some of the peaks in the Andes, Everest, etc)

[michigander]

Probably because this one had an excerpt of the news? Still why pull it from 'breaking news"?

As opposed to two full local articles in the body of the other thread?
I won't even speculate about the 'Breaking News' thingy.

Whatever. LOL!

[Kaslin]

Some expert said the other day on FNC that is actually safer to climb in the winter instead the summer, because you don't have the falling rocks