Posted on 12/20/2006 5:47:52 AM PST by randita
Search turns a corner as hope for two climbers wanes
Mount Hood - Planes inspect a small area and a scaled-back crew remains ready as talk turns to probing with poles
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
MATTHEW PREUSCH and STUART TOMLINSON
The Oregonian
HOOD RIVER -- With searchers returning to their day jobs, helicopters back at their home bases and another storm blowing toward Mount Hood, officials are expressing little hope the search for two missing climbers will come to a happy end.
"For all intents and purposes, things are kind of wrapping up," said Portland Mountain Rescue's Steve Rollins, who was back at Nike on Tuesday in his first full day of work since joining the search more than a week ago.
While pointedly avoiding calling their mission one of recovery rather than rescue, search managers acknowledged that their work turned a corner Tuesday.
"The big search probably is over," Hood River County Sheriff Joe Wampler said. "We're approaching that time where we've got to make some serious consideration of whether we're spinning our wheels or not."
Texan Kelly James, 48, was found Sunday in a snow cave near the summit, and an autopsy is scheduled for later this week. Fellow Texan Brian Hall and Jerry "Nikko" Cooke of New York remain missing.
A skeleton crew of climbers remained at Cloud Cap Inn, their high-elevation staging area, but they were on standby, and the mountain essentially was empty above the tree line.
Searching Tuesday was limited to a few passes by two small Hood River County Sheriff's Office airplanes of an area between Newton Clark and Eliot glaciers where Hall, 37, and Cooke, 36, are thought to be.
Pilots also took two family members up in the planes for a brief tour of the area.
"This office is not going to give up unless somebody tells me the risk of this thing outweighs the results," Wampler said.
Approaching storm
Another storm is expected to roll in by tonight, bringing sustained winds of 50 mph and as much as a foot of snow on the mountain, according to the National Weather Service.
The sheriff said Tuesday that he hoped to send in an avalanche team to probe the snow with poles if and when conditions permit.
The county conservatively estimates it has been spending about $5,000 a day for food, fuel, lodging, personnel and overtime costs during the nine full days of the operation. The county's search and rescue budget for the year was about $14,000, Chief Deputy Jerry Brown said.
"Needless to say, we're just a wee bit in the wind on that one," he said.
Brown said he met this week with county commissioners, who are faced with finding funds to prepare for the next search and rescue operation, which could come at any time.
Wampler said he wasn't going to tell people they shouldn't climb Mount Hood in winter.
"The only thing I would say in regards to climbing the mountain this time of year (is) if you have a problem, it's really hard to get rescued," he said.
Governor weighs in
A spokeswoman said Gov. Ted Kulongoski plans to take a hard look at the "after incident" reports on recent search and rescue missions in Oregon to "identify whether there are gaps in the system."
"It's too premature to speculate now," said Anna Richter Taylor, the governor's communications director. But Kulongoski will look at whether the state needs to play a bigger role in covering the cost of searches and in ensuring communication among the agencies involved.
Search and rescue missions fall within the authority of county sheriffs and county budgets, she said. To cover their search costs, many counties use federal money that is supposed to replace lost revenue from timber harvests.
That money has not been reauthorized by Congress and could dry up soon, Richter Taylor said. It's one more reason for Oregon's congressional delegation to push for continued funding, she said.
Richter Taylor also said the governor opposes a law mandating that mountain climbers use transponders or beacons. And he doesn't think they should be required to buy special insurance to pay for search and rescue efforts.
Families issue thanks
The families of the climbers again thanked searchers and people from around the world for their concern and prayers.
"Our faith in the strength of the minds, bodies and spirits of Nikko and Brian remains steadfast," said Angela Hall, Brian Hall's sister.
Rocky Henderson of Portland Mountain Rescue, who coordinated search efforts from Timberline Lodge during the weekend, says Cooke and Hall could have been blown away by strong winds while trying to descend to get help for James, who dislocated his left shoulder on the climb.
Pictures taken with a disposable camera found with James show two sets of tracks in the snow side by side, indicating one of the climbers may have been assisting one of his partners, presumably James, up the slope, Wampler said.
The photos, Wampler said, also confirmed fears that the men were traveling light and fast, lessening their chances of surviving for long in the harsh conditions that quickly overtook the mountain.
Lightweight gear
Rescuers from the U.S. Air Force Reserve's 304th Rescue Squadron who found James in his snow cave said he had a thin lightweight waterproof sack, but no sleeping bag and no warm insulated jacket.
"I think an injury threw that schedule all off and left them in a position of, 'What are we gonna do?' " Wampler said.
Notes the men left indicated they would descend Cooper Spur in an emergency.
From the summit, they would have been able to walk down as far as they safely could as darkness came on Friday night, Dec. 8, and build a snow cave where they spent the night without sleeping bags.
Henderson thinks the men set up a base camp above the Tilly Jane trail head and below the point they started the most technical part of the climb. Any such camp would be buried under two feet of new and drifted snow by now.
On Saturday morning, Dec. 9, Cooke and Hall likely traversed across the mountain, Henderson said, and then chopped an indentation into the snow where they could affix anchors for a descent down the Cooper Spur route.
The matched pair of ice axes discovered Sunday by rescuers indicates strong winds, estimated at up to 100 mph, could have "blown away" the climber above, Henderson said.
"To leave the ice axes was not intentional," he said. "They are essential tools for climbing, one for each hand. On a hard face like that, you don't leave your tools."
Matthew Preusch: 541-382-2006; preusch@bendbroadband.com
Can't survive if you can't keep warm. Wonder if he lost his pack in the accident which contained coat, sleeping bag, etc. But he did have a light waterproof sack, which would have supposedly been in his pack. More information would be helpful. Good down jackets and sleeping bags or half bags rated to 20º can be had for barely more than a pound each. Essential gear, IMO.
Very sad for their loved ones.
Snow caves aren't much good without insulation from the ice. James probably died not too many hours after he made the cell call.
"This office is not going to give up unless somebody tells me the risk of this thing outweighs the results," Wampler said.
Okay I'M telling you. So stop spending WASTING the taxpayers money - NOW.
If I plan a large 'protest march' or such, I need a Permit and a Bond to cover any unseen costs, Mountain Climbing or any 'Extreme Sport' should be no exception.
I have zero sympathy for these adrenalin rush seeking jerks. 'Because It's There' doesn't work any more.
These climbers went up Mt Hood in December. If they were unprepared that's too bad for them. How much has been spent, and how many lives have been risked to try and rescue them? Enough already. They were big boys and knew what they were getting into.
Well said, IMO.
I also get real upset when resucers loose their own lives trying to save the people that knowingly take risks like this.
I do agree with your suggestions, maybe that already happens, I do not know.
You bet.
And what they choose to do is almost like an adult version of 'Jackass'.
"Hey Maude, watch this - we're gonna climb Mt Hood in December when there could be 10ft of snow in one day. Keep the camera running."
From all of what I've heard in this non-stop coverage is NO. They go on their merry way and taxpayers foot the bill for their screw ups.
That 'may' have been okay in 1940 when a rescue was impossible due to lack of technology (like no Helicopters), but not in today's world.
What they did was irresponsible.
I have a better idea. FReepers should be honor bound to not advocate NANNY STATE GOVERNMENT! By all means let's advocate that government start demanding that allegedly free people have to post bonds before doing whatever it is this week that the government feels like regulating. Too stupid for words. You and your ilk trust government way too much.
Not to speak ill of the dead, but the first word that came to mind upon reading that sentence was: IDIOTS!
I wonder if they bothered to check weather.com before they departed?
http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/97049
http://www.weather.com/weather/hourbyhour/97049
http://www.weather.com/weather/map/97049?name=index_large_animated&day=197049 = Zigzag, OR = Rhododendron, OR = Villages at Mt. Hood:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Hood/Maps/map_hood_area.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villages_at_Mt._Hood%2C_Oregon
They even showed pictures of other people who had died and their bodies remained on site..........
A climb on Mount Everest is a whole different scenario. To get a sense of how large it is, just imagine climbing to the top of Mount Hood, and then from that point climbing to the top of another Mount Hood again . . . which then leaves you about 6,000 feet below the top of the mountain.
The problem with a real high mountain climb is not so much the weather conditions -- it's the lack of oxygen. These climbers are often left on the side of the trail by other passing climbers because in thin air at that elevation, any excessive exertion on the part of a climber puts his/her own life in jeopardy. Oxygen tanks are needed at these high altitudes, and helping an injured climber on the trail is basically the equivalent of going on a deep-sea dive with 60 minutes of oxygen in your tank, finding an injured diver 30 minutes into your descent, and giving him half your oxygen just so both of you can get halfway back to the surface only to die with 15 minutes left in your ascent.
Nicely said. Also, is it just coincidence that they are from TEXAS and NEW YORK? If they had families, I think they were selfish.
IIRC Oregon and Montana have laws that allow rescuees to be billed for rescue efforts if said rescuees do something really, really dumb (like in this case).
I suppose they could bill the estates of these new Darwin Award recipients, but I think it would be bad form.
Right, people put way too much belief in those thin mylar blankets. They do a certain job (reflecting radiative heat back to the body), but they aren't "insulating" per se.
Don't judge all climbers
by dead-heads who wind up dead.
Climbers I have known
were amazingly
careful about every point
of preparation
and execution
of a climb. This is sort of
like gun control laws --
we can't let ourselves
punish the decent people
because of the nuts.
Was reading Jack London’s To Build A Fire in grade school a turning point for anyone else’s view of man's place in nature?
Didn't one of them have a wife and four kids?
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