jfmctlaw

News conf notes: Avy danger is high. They have to be very careful. "We found some very positive things up there" "Climbing teams are just summitting" "In the next few hours they expect some major developements" Frank James expressed profound gratitude for SAR effort. Remains very optimistic and prayful. Thanks all across US who are sending support and positive thoughts. Dwight Hall took mike, Brian's Dad. He feels the past days of searching were productive in eliminating possible places where climbers could be. Recognizes what a huge effort this is and appreciates such. Remains confident in missing climbers judgment and preparation for such. He wanted to address issues of the cost of the rescue. (He began to get very emotional at this point). He says these guys were all raised to be responsible for such. Frank James stepped in after Dwight and said that was all the questions they would take for now.

Sheriff says team should summit by 10am PT today. Team trying to get to cell phone ping location. SAR built snowcave on mtn last night and communicated with C-130 so 130 could get idea of what a human/snowcave signature would look like on it's receivers. Wing commander is very cautious about his comments today. They have some information that will narrow scope of search but they are being cautious about it. It is partially due to the fact that the technology on the C-130 is top secret military stuff and they don't want to reveal what the plane can do. But they do have some information that will narrow search.

10 min or so delay announced for conference.

9am PT news conference about to go live: http://www.katu.com/

Sunday, December 17, 2006 Searchers hope to reach Mount Hood peak by noon The lead team of searchers left for the Mount Hood peak at 6 a.m. and hope to make the top by noon. The first team to head up the mountain is known as the hasty team. Those are searchers who are dispatched to the most likely locations where the lost climbers are holed up. On Saturday, the hasty team reached 10,600 feet - the highest searchers have made it since the search effort began. Dale Atkins, an avalanche expert from Colorado, was on the lead team Saturday and is expected to be on the hasty team today, said Detective Jim Strovink of the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. Scaling the mountain takes about six to eight hours in ideal conditions. Today’s weather offers climbers a rare window of opportunity. After a tumultuous week of weather, today’s winds will be calm and the sky will be clear. -Noelle Crombie noellecrombie@news.oregonian.com

News conference: C-130 can fly all night using IR. C-130 flys higher than helos b/c it needs smoother air for stable platform. UH-60's operating 9k to 11k and will fly until it's too dark. All searcher's are descending off mtn now. Some teams made it to about 10k. It sounds like no one summitted. The 2 climber's that were spotted previously by the UH-60 are now reported to be misidentified rocks or SAR crew. It appears chopper saw the '2 climbers' and then departed the scene to refuel. Upon return to the site, the 'climbers' could not be found. Tomorrow's weather should be as good or better than today. Soft snow blowing around causes intermittent white out conditions. Heavy soft snow is slowing SAR climbers. Choppers can not fly too close to mountain b/c of wind shear. Best IR opportunity comes in early AM as other objects have cooled over night. No decision made regarding terminating search after tomorrow yet, although it is harder to get volunteer resources during the work week.

Sunset for Hood River is 1623 today. Weather forecast is good though so search can continue during eve. Below real time pic shows overcast but ceiling appears higher than summit. http://www.fsvisimages.com/cori1/cori1.html Fox is doing the pre-news conference review now.

The Oregonian report said the 2 climbers were spotted near Tie In rock on Cooper Spur. Here is picture of the route. It is part of where Brian and Nikko said they may descend. http://www.summitpost.org/parent/155414/cooper-spur.html

Next news conference is 2pm PT (37 mins from now). Fox says the Sheriff says 'no significant developments yet'... Nothing was said about the 2 unidentified climbers.

Ruedi, I have several cell phones (Motorola and Nokia) and I can change the GPS broadcast setting. The default setting is to send GPS coordinate info on 911 calls only. The other setting is to send GPS info on all calls. I usually change my settings when I'm off the beaten path.

Apparently from the Oregonian and Fox a team approaching from the south may be about to summit soon and descend the NF to find Kelly. I believe his phone has a GPS receiver as many phones do now. It allows 911 folks to get a very accurate fix (+/- 2 meters) on where you are since GPS Selective Availability was turned off in 2000.

There is always a lot of ignorant opinions when any specialized activity grabs the headlines from the wannabees as well as the media. I just heard Fox News say that a "C-130 was dropping rescuers at the summit". Man... that's gonna be one hairy jump run. "5 Left...."

2 Blackhawks and 1 Chinook are reported to be airborne now. If Jerry, Brian and Nikko can move, they should crawl out of their caves soon.

Live feed here http://www.katu.com/news/live/3882262.html

Hover performance for a helo depends upon many factors. There are 2 different kinds of hover performance, the first in 'ground effect' and the second without ground effect. This difference alone is usually worth several thousand feet in altitude. If they plan on dropping SAR personnel near the summit as reported, they have already scoped out this issue. Flying in the mountains at low altitude is always tricky as airflow can be very unsmooth. News conference just went live. Joe Wampler-Hood River County Sheriff Teams advancing from both Timberline (70) and teams from North side (30). Other teams standing by. Temp at 12k is 6° Avalanche danger is extremely high. Wind is still blowing on mtn. No one ever saw climbers above timberline. Sheriff says climbers will be airlifted as soon as possible to Portland Hospital. Will winch them onboard, no need to land helo on mtn. Mtn closed for now to keep it 'clean' of anyone besides SAR and missing climbers. All teams start at about 6,000' on all sides. Movement is slow right now due to deep snow for SAR. Skiis and snowshoes are needed. SAR teams were hand picked due to skills. Paramedics and Avalanche experts on each team. Winds currently light, 20mph E. Forecast is for the winds to diminish as day goes on.

Here are several articles on the art of building a snowcave or Quin-zhee hut. http://www.altrec.com/published/snowshoe/howtos/buildingasnowcave/ http://www.step-on.co.uk/backcountry_snowcave.htm http://www.outdoorlife.com/outdoor/photogallery/article/0,20036,1569779,00.html

I think it was pretty smart to lock the mountain down. This way all the SAR resources can work without distraction as there will be plenty to deal with anyways. Now all they have to do is dodge the avalanches.

I have not heard of Flir or IR use yet due to the flying platforms that were available so far (helo & drone) which are unsuitable for this weather. The C-130 is the airframe that routinely flys to the eye of a hurricane and back.

Fox News is reporting that a C-130 military aircraft is enroute to PDX from Reno, ETA 2pm PT. Should be airborne this evening in the Mt. Hood area. Has IR equipment on board and can fly regardless of weather.

Kauli, The following website is a local newspaper that has been doing a pretty fair job of reporting accurately. They also published the 1976 "13 nights in a snow cave" survival story on Mt. Hood. http://www.oregonlive.com/

This news article tells how hellish and impossible it is to climb in this weather. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1166068514150440.xml&coll=7&thispage=1

Apparently the phone is no longer responding to pings as of Tues afternoon. Speculation was that the phone 1) was off, 2) has a dead batt, 3) or had moved enough to lose reception. They were pinging the phone every 5 or 10 mins, not sure why, and I have no idea how much of a power drain it is for the phone to reply to the ping, but I'm sure the cell phone engineers know what they're doing. http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=nation_world&id=4848223

I saw this quote in OregonLive website: ____________________ Despite assurances that they will keep up the search, rescuers are beginning to show signs of wearing thin. "The skilled type of people who can operate in this environment are pretty limited," Wampler said. "We're running out of people. We had 40 up yesterday, and after a day of climbing, they're done. They need a couple of days' rest." http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1165985714267120.xml&coll=7&thispage=3 _____________________ I wonder what Sheriff Joe meant by that...

Pardon my ignorance but why don't the search teams move up the mountain in multiple camp style like Everest? Is there a way to stage camps up the mountain (snow cave to snow cave), use GPS's and avoid avalanche danger? Presuming of course you can hike in the wind...I really don't know much about Mt. Hood but I'm curious. I mean, if the weather is bad for a week solid, is there nothing to do but wait?

I'm here on the East Coast. Fox News just said that the phone signal was detected again yesterday and that the Cell Phone company could tell that the phone moved. They did not say how far, but said that such movement indicates that James is still alive. My impression is that he is just moving about the cave. News conference is scheduled for 9:00 am PST.