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 ...
Hi txrangerette,
It is hard to read anything into what Mr. James said. He certainly was not lucid (no disrespect intended), and the call was made at 4AM...
I hold out hope that his partners survived the initial fall (or whatever), but could not ascend. That would leave James on his own, allow them to communicate to him that they would be going for help, and leave him the only one to make the cell call.
In this case, if the rope was cut, it would be cut short, with James playing out as much as he could before cutting it loose, to allow them as much rope for a decent as possible.
It isn't over till it's over.
-Bruce
Am I the only one who heard him say that he would not say who the 2 axes belonged to, but that a third ax was found with the body?
Hi Surfer,
I agree, in part. Broken would be more serious, but dislocation can also cause shock (it is painful, and the pain causes the shock.) You must understand the magnification of injury that happens in an hostile environment. Any injury is potentially disabling.
As far as resetting it (not an easy thing), it is a moot point, as it was not reset, rendering the arm useless.
When I said "same difference" I was referring to the mechanics of the injury- If he got tangled in the rope and 350 lbs (his fellows) hit the end of the rope w/ velocity, it is easy to assume a dislocation or a break.
Sorry, I didn't make that very clear.
-Bruce
Bruce, there has been speculation that the rope was "cut". Is it possible that the three of them were "hooked" together when the two in front of James started on a down-ward slide..James then tried to pull them up, but the weight caused his arm to "break" and he knew he was going to go down with them, so he desperately cut the rope to save himself?
sw
I think if James' shoulder was injured, he would not be able to make a large snow cave by himself, which he was found in.
Sorry I didn't think your post through as far as I should have. Reading your additional post certainly cleared that up for me. Thanks.
That is what I think happened too. I think the other two were already gone.
Yes, but that snow cave had been built on Friday night. It is possible that James was with them on Saturday for the descent and an accident happened. He could have made his way back to the snow cave they had built on Friday.
What is a belayor? I've been wondering.
AA, I refer to roamer's post #257 in which he says the first spot found by the rescuers was likely "a protected belay position or anchor-end for a traverse", not a true cave. He even puts the word "cave" in quotes.
Then he says James survived the accident, (though badly injured) avalanche or whatever it was and "made his way to the only shelter available- The snow cave from the previous night" (leaving behind his gear).
Therefore the other cave had already been built and they spent the night before there. It wasn't very far, though no doubt tricky, and their footprints could have been followed by him back to it. But clearly he was in bad shape so no wonder he sounded as he did in the phone call.
The sheriff also said that from the pictures they made it too the summit. They should be able to tell if someone was injured at that time. I'm thinking not. I think it happened on Saturday. It just makes more sense, then any of the other scenarios. But hey, it's all speculation.
He (roamer_1) explains a belayor in post #267.
Roamer has presented the likeliest scenario I've read to date.
I'm hung up on the rope being "cut"...IF/when they find the other two men, it should answer my question wrt them possibly being on the other end of the cut rope..
sw
Thanks for sharing your insights with us!
Same here, and now I understand what were the discrepancies in how the two caves were initially described vs. what seems to be the best information now. Once they were cleared up, my brain fused all of the info into one pile and was able to process it.
I was one, early on, who was suggesting that Kelly James might have got from one "cave" (not a true cave) to the other (a true cave but with an apparently quite shallow entrance) where he was found because of various speculative scenarios (one of which was that the other men were gone, the other was that maybe he died and the two men carried him to his "found" location, then something happened to them afterward...didn't yet have all needed info, obviously).
I just had some info about the two places reversed, which I now have straight.
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View of the south side of Mount Hood. The dashed line outlines the fan of pyroclastic flow deposits and mudflows that formed about 1,500-1,800 years ago. The remnant of a dome that erupted about 200-300 years ago is in the center of Mount Hood's crater (arrow). From Crandell (1980).
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Crater Rock (arrow), the remnant of a dome that erupted about 200-300 years ago, rises 560 feet (170 m) above the crater of Mount Hood. Figure 17 from Crandell (1980).
Mount Hood is a stratovolcano in northern Oregon... It is located about 50 miles east-southeast of the city of Portland...
Mount Hood's snow-covered peak rises 11,249 ft. It is the highest mountain in Oregon and the fourth-highest in the Cascade Range.
Mount Hood is considered the Oregon volcano most likely to erupt...
Mount Hood is part of the Mount Hood National Forest, which has 1.2 million acres ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Hood
Thanks--That's what I get for not reading---;>(
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