Posted on 12/18/2006 8:47:53 AM PST by george76
A missing climber found dead in a snow cave on Mount Hood was identified as a Dallas man who had placed a distress call to relatives a little more than a week ago, a person close to the family said Monday.
Searchers found the cave Sunday near the spot located by cell phone signals traced from Kelly James, who made a four-minute call to his family Dec. 10 just below the summit, said Jessica Nunez, a spokeswoman for the climber's family.
On Monday, a recovery team was expected to retrieve the body, which remained on the mountain over night because darkness made it too dangerous to retrieve. The search for two other climbers also was to resume on the treacherous north side of Oregon's highest mountain.
His body was found in a second snow cave near the first, about 300 feet below the summit. Rescuers found two ice axes, a sleeping bag or pad and rope in the first. It was not known if any gear was in the second cave.
Monday's search would center on possible descent routes on Eliot Glacier and Cooper Spur, relatively lower levels of the mountain, in case the other two got down that far...
"Eliot Glacier is real dangerous so we will do that by air only," Hughes said Monday. "It's a bad avalanche area with crevasses. There are still people in crevasses that have never been recovered."
Searchers dug through the first cave to ensure no one was there and took the equipment, which will be examined for clues. The second cave with the climber's body was found a short time later.
It was not immediately clear which cave was occupied first, or why or when the climber, or climbers, decided to move from it.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
There are folks here on FR that know one of the families personally.
It just isn't right to blame these men for this situation. No one knows what actually happened. It appears that Kelly dislocated his shoulder which made it impossible for him to make the steep climb from where that happened. The weather moved in faster than it was forecast.
The rescue teams, National Guard and Sheriff have done an outstanding job under very difficult conditions. God bless them and keep them safe. May the families continue to have faith and strength to endure this terrible situation.
Wow, I am a lot like your son! I get kinda depressed in the summer, as you can't escape the heat and the infernal sunshine, LOL! Give me snow, cold, and clouds.
The article that started this thread was written before the news conference yesterday, so those questions were answered in that news conference.
I will see if I can find you a picture of the snow cave from the news conference yesterday. The cave starts low and shallow and then will angle up into a bigger sleeping area. The sheriff said that this cave was built as it should be, but maybe Mr. Kelly was found in that entrance area. Possibly wandering because of the hypothermia?
I had a 104 fever one time with pneumonia and had someone watch my kids away from the house. I started hallucinating and wandering around my house (funny how I can remember this) looking for a "door" so they could come home, but all of the "doors" were gone.
Ok....back to being confused! Hopefully the next press conference will clear this up. Wish you were part of the press core so you could ask these questions!
Same here. (bump)
I just read those paragraphs. I wouldn't get hung up on them. So, they say they aren't sure which cave was occupied first? Well, it seems pretty obvious given the evidence they've found so far. The large cave was occupied first, then the two climbers left James there and headed over to where the second cave is.
When you say that the cave where James' body was found was shallow, and "what kind of protection is that...," maybe some of the snow on the top of the snow cave had blown away in the high winds? Climbers know how to build snow caves, and supposedly this larger one was well built. People can last a long time in a snow cave. Maybe they didn't have a stove for heat, since they packed light. And maybe they were wet because of the weather, making hypothermia more likely.
I guess we just have to discern what makes the most sense from all the different news reports.
I understand it's possible for his body to freeze solid given the necessary circumstances. I'm saying that where his body was found it was so close to the surface that an ice tool used by one of the rescue team just to get himself safely around on the mountain actually easily broke completely through the cave's top and right underneath was the body. No wonder it was frozen solid, so near the surface like that the temp. had to be almost what the surface temp. was. But I'm to accept that he was left there for "protection" while the other two went for help?? I heard this on tv last night from the guy's own mouth.
At least one of them was using this ascent as a training climb for an Everest attempt. The conditions this time of year can replicate the conditions on Everest.
The reports I have seen said the cave that James was in was very well built and deep. All three of them spent at least one night in there.
The secondary cave (one that was found first) was more of a working shelter carved into the ice. It was not intended as a survival cave but one to afford them protection from the elements while they made their final preparations for their rapid descent to get help for Kelly.
Well, he couldn't make the climb either way because of injury. And most likely the other two could have made it out to safety and returned except the nastiest storm in quite some time arrived and complicated everything for everyone.
I guess the other option is that they all could have stayed put. But, if they all would have been found in the cave, they would have been criticized for not going for help, etc. It is a choice you make, kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Someone else will have to verify this, but I don't think you will want to use a stove inside the snow cave. It would cause the snow to start melting, then you would get wet, and suffer hypothermia even faster.
I believe the mand who found the big cave with Mr. James (I am so sorry, I have been calling him Mr. Kelly) found the entrance, not the top.
I've read that you can carve channels in the ceiling to route the water away. Plus, the shape of the ceiling can help keep water away. I'm no expert, just saying what I've read.
Remember, the rescue guy probably had an ice axe that he was using to hack into the snow. I'm guessing it has a decently long poker thingy, and is hefty. Plus he's a strapping young man who was likely using a good deal of his arm strength to hack the snow. So it's not like he was poking the snow with his finger. I'm sure the cave was sturdy, or it would not have held together in those high winds. (Plus, even a thin layer of snow offers insulation.)
That is interesting... Take quite a bit of work, but could make sense.
Hi Roses,
How horrible of me to reply so late. I am sorry, I thought I had replied yesterday.
I don't know what to make of it. It almost seems like whatever happened to the other two is the same thing that injured James- A climbing accident of some sort.
It seems unlikely that they would have left him (James) injured (the news is that he had a very bad break in an arm). Broken bones mean shock, and the best administration of aid that they could have done would have been to stay with him and provide as much heat as possible, as well as a preliminary setting of the wounded arm.
While not an optimal situation, if they got a break in the weather, it is more likely they would have taken him with them. They had the technical gear to do that, strapping him into a rope "basket" and hauling him the last few hundred feet...
After they are on a rap line (rappelling, going down), it is much easier to let him down the slope, and his best salvation would be to get him into the tree-line, where resources are comparatively plentiful.
Once there, and a fire is built, then one might hoof it out to get help, leaving the other to care for the injured partner.
Even if the situation were grave enough to require leaving him on the summit and going for help, it is doubtful they would have tried to leave until there was daylight and reasonable visibility, and a predictable break in the weather- at least enough break to get over the top, and into the lee of the mountain.
James was beyond delirium when he called home at 4A.M.- If his partners were hale enough to go onward, it is unlikely they would have left without someone calling the local Forest Service or Sheriff. That cell phone was their best chance of help, and I doubt they would have entrusted that job to a shockey, injured partner.
If they had in fact left him to go for help (which is doubtful), and were not able to establish communication by phone (intermittent signal due to storm), it is likely they would have left every bit of insulation they could spare with their injured partner, as well as a written log of what happened and where they were attempting descent, in the event they were unsuccessful.
One doesn't go out into 100 mph winds at 10,000 ft without a sure knowledge that death is with you. They would have left a legacy in that cave.
What seems most likely is that the first "cave" they found was a protected belay position or anchor-end for a traverse, and that James was there awaiting his turn (perhaps on belay). Perhaps a piece of the cornice broke away, perhaps there was a slip, or an avalanche...
While James survived, he was horribly injured and left his station without collecting his various gear, and made his way to the only shelter available- The snow cave from the previous night.
I am sorry to be so grim, but the other scenarios that have been offered up don't make sense. I also know this doesn't bode well for the others (though hope springs eternal), but they were all experienced high-altitude climbers, and they weren't likely to be making stupid moves. -Bruce
That could explain the similar sized ice picks and mat found at the "2nd cave." They possibly had Mr. James in there to protect him from the elements while they did the work. Since he had supposedly said that the others had left to get help in his phone call, do you think the scenario had already played out?
I didn't mean my comment about the shallow cave entrance and his frozen body to be critical of the men's efforts to help one another.
It was intended to pose questions aloud about what do we really know or understand about what was going on there? When his protection, whatever it was, ended up with his body frozen to death. I'm not saying that those who built it were derelict or something. I AM noticing that perhaps only the entrance to the cave where his body was found was very shallow, and that there was more to the cave than that. I didn't get that full picture from what the man said on NG. He was emphasizing how his tool accidentally broke through the surface it was so shallow, when he first entered it.
I AM also noticing that the first cave to be FOUND on rescue day 1 is being called the second cave in terms of the men's movements, and that the second cave found that day, with the body, is being called the first cave in regard to their movements. It's also dawning that the equipment was found in the lesser built cave which the two built, apparently, upon leaving James, just to shelter in. So, perhaps I misunderstood the Sheriff when I thought he said the equipment was found in the best built cave.
If I'm following this now, the best built cave, even though according to the man who discovered it had a very shallow entrance, was where James was left. And no equip. was there. And from which they think he made his call, having been left behind there as he said. (So much for him being TOTALLY incoherent...ya see, he did say SOMETHING right).
My interest in the article is because I'm backtracking to see how the cave info was presented before I got confused listening to what seemed to be conflicting accounts, and how that info has stayed with me as I try to harmonize it with what I'm hearing now. Now that I'm getting a better handle on the here and now info, I think this early info is not conflicting, except as has been pointed out, cave 1 for the climbers was found second, and cave two for the two climbers was found first. So stating it either way depends on whose point of view is used...the searchers or the climbers POV.
My thanks to all who contributed info that I'm not always able to spend time gathering. Got to get off again now. Duties call.
Any follow ups??
Roamer_1, you make a lot of sense. I, too, though not in the precise way you did, have wondered if Kelly James was already alone on that mountain peak when he called his family, and I have wondered if he did not at some point make his way from one site location to the other prior to the call.
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