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 ...
"Eliot Glacier is real dangerous so we will do that by air only," ...
"It's a bad avalanche area with crevasses.
There are still people in crevasses that have never been recovered."
Mt. Hood is such a dangerous mountain...very unpredictable. My thoughts and prayers are with the families.
Near the first snow cave...was an ice spike and footprints, apparently headed up the mountain...
If only we come get us some global warming up there ...
[/sarcasm]
The Glacier grinds them up and splits them out in a few decades, give or take a decade or two.
Sad. I really was holding out hope.
That fast ?
I would guess centuries ?
Out of curiousity, why would someone chose this time of year to try and climb Mt. Hood? Instead of, say, the middle of summer?
If they are in a cravasse, or got caught in an avalanche, would they be able to see clues like footprints from the air?
It may be hard after the hurricane force winds and over four feet of fresh snow.
It would depend on which day they were moving, too.
Condolences to Kelly James' family and friends.
I am sure that phone call, is in retrospect, such a blessing for which Kelly's family can be so thankful. I think that in situations such as this, it is an encouragement for a family to find small things for which they can be thankful, even in the darkest of times.
That call was such a gift.
A winter climb here could be practice for one of the bigs like Everest.
It can be very pretty with the snow and ice sparkling in the winter.
Some other reasons, too.
News conference coming up in a few minutes here:
http://www.katu.com/news/live/3882262.html
Plus the family knows that he was doing what he loved and that he was with his friends.
Prayers for the family.
there is a good time line and a list of deaths on Mt Hood from 1981 on at www.oregonlive.com. One question I have not had answered whether the tracking devices would have worked for the hikers, or are they just for skiers?
Will put a crew on helicopter up on the mountain this morning. Search is narrowed to area near caves and directly below them. Eliot Glacier, Cooper Spur, 60% slope, 2500 foot fall, will search by air. Have been searching down around timberline, but not finding anything.
3 climbers went up right gully to summit, and actually summited. When they got up there, footprints went south along ridge, looking for entrance to Pearly Gates (route down), because of weather they didn't get down it. Instead they went to east side all 3 together, dropped down 300 ft, Newton Clark Glacier, dug a cave that probably housed all 3 on Friday night. Saturday, 2 climbers left cave went back north below summit ridge, back to Cooper Spur route. There was a rope anchor with the shelter/cave second, not built as well as first cave, just a shelter. While they were there, they clipped in to be safe. There were ice axes found there, both the same, likely belonged to one climber. One sleeping foam pad, not a sleeping bag. One wool glove. That is the last known location of two of the climbers. There have been a lot of problems, historically, in this area with falls. They either clipped in for safety or went down from there. Probably because of wind. James had mentioned that climbing down the way they came would be impossible, and yet that's where they ended up. The body had cell phone on it, but was waterlogged and didn't work anymore.
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