Identity of body found on Mt. Hood a surprise

NWCN ^ | 08/05/03 | NWCN Staff

[bedolido]

PORTLAND - The skeletal remains discovered last weekend on Mount Hood belong to somebody nobody knew was missing on the mountain, Clackamas County Sheriff's detectives said Tuesday.

The person's identity will not be released until the state Medical Examiner's Office completes a full exam and family members are notified, a process that could take up to a week.

Search crews found the skeletal remains on Saturday, during a large-scale search for missing Portland snowshoer Fred Frauens. The Sheriff’s Office at first identified the body as that of Frauens, who disappeared during a solo climb in March. A medical examiner later determined the body was not Frauens.

Investigators also do not think the remains belong to two other hikers who have disappeared on the mountain and were never found. Kenneth Budlong failed to return from a solo hike in 1995; Karoly Janos Orsi went missing in 2001.

Clackamas County investigators said they do not think the person they suspect was found died under suspicious circumstances. Searchers found the remains on a steep, gravelly embankment more than four miles from Timberline Lodge.

[bedolido]

[eno_]

I've done solo backcountry skiing on Hood. It's a damn big place to be alone in. Best to carry a radio, a flare, extra clothing and a couple power bars, and an emergency plastic/foil bivvy sack even if you are just skiing the back of Hood off the lift.

[Conan the Librarian]

Calling Big-foot, Mr. Fred Bigfoot.

[GreatOne]

Maybe it's Amelia Earhart?

[RockChucker]

I lived in a tent (reinforced) for a year. Paradice in the summer; wouldn't recommend it to anyone in the winter. Too lonely. Too harsh.

The mountain is tricky, especially at the higher altitudes. Every day during the summer, the day starts out sunny. People go for a long hike. As the day goes on, the glaciers and snowfields create their own weather and cloud masses. People can't see anything in clouds and become disorientated. They then decide to go back and follow the fall line down the mountain instead of using a compass and map. The fall line always takes you in the wrong direction, down to step draws, clifts, sink holes and cravases.

I have personally had many close calls and know people who were in the peak of physical conditions broken by the mountain perrmanently (ie - crushed hips, no teeth, etc, etc). I didn't personally know anyone who lost their lives, but there were emergencies every week.

Mt. Hood has the 2nd highest death rate in the world. Mt. Fuji has the highest.

[Redleg Duke]

Judge Crater?

[Grut]

Ambrose Bierce, please call the office!

[quark]

Jimmy Hoffa (Elvis?)

[Billthedrill]

Gotta be D.B. Cooper.

I've hiked there solo as well, and I wouldn't advise it. Take your GPS box and a good topo map and you'll be OK, but this is wild country and screwing up is sometimes a capital offense.

[theDentist]

OBL?

[eno_]

GPSs are amazing. Didn't have one when I was on Hood. I have one now that stores ALL the AMC and RMC trails on the Presidential Range and shows contour lines. No color display, so it was cheap, too. Now I will be able to tell just how screwed I am if a storm comes in while I'm on the ridge line.

[najida]

I was thinking DB Cooper also.

[Gritty]

Anybody seen Craig Livingstone lately?

[bedolido]

Mt Hood is very deceptive. I've been up to Timberline lodge several times. Looking from there to the top of Hood looks so easy to climb. It isn't.

[bedolido]

too far away from where they said he jumped from the 727... it would be interesting though.

[RockChucker]

Your right.... its kind of an optical illusion. The mountain is very 'pointed' and the perception can be that the top cannot be more than 2 hours hike from the lodge. Even from the top of the lift at the top of the Palmer ice field, it will still take the greater part of the morning to get up there.

If you linger too long at the top, the temperature riseup to 70 - 80f. The ice starts melting and rocks are let loose (not to mention the developing clouds). I have played dodge ball with basket ball size rocks barreling down at me. One time, it turned out my 'buddy' beat me to the top of this step ridge and was rolling the things down on me for laughs (proof - Maui Waui can kill!).

As mountains of that altitude go, it is relatively easy (except for the last 500 feet where you ought to use ropes). It's basically a step uphill walk. Thats the problem. People can drive 1 hour from Portland and be at the timeberline (parking and pool available) and start hiking.

[bedolido]

wasn't there a tragedy a few years ago (possibly in the late 70's or early 80's) involving a group of blind climbers?

[bedolido]

I'm not a climber (physical problems) but was tempted to try the climb to the top of Hood. I used to want to do the same on Mt St Helens (before it blew). St Helens was a perfectly shaped volcano. I used to go steelhead fishing on the North Fork of the Lewis in southern Washington state. I think the lewis was one of the rivers affected by the eruption.

[eno_]

People die on Mt. Washington, and it is a relatively small heavily travelled area with lots of paths - including the Appalachian Trail - all over the place. People have frozen to death a couple hundred yards from

On Hood, I remember thinking "damn, it would take me three days to bushwhack back to a road if I got lost back here."

[RockChucker]

I got lost in the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness area near Mt. Hood. I was on wee little used trail that started on the Estacada side. After hiking for a day, I basically was off the trial. After spending the day getting to the top of the 'hill' to take a look around and get my direction straight, all I could see was other 5000 ft 'hills' and clouds. No Mt. Hood for direction. I could just blase north to the highway, but that could take days, at the least, up and down these mountains.

Basically, went to the bottom and followed a creek to a larger creek to a river to the Salmon river, etc, etc. I figured I would eventually hit the Pacific Ocean (worst case). Needess to say, the next day I was at the Zig Zag party store eating a day old buritto and drinking Fosters from the can...