Rat_In_Training

Nice. Wishfull thinking, but your full of it!!

While there is no ranger station at the south side of hood, there is the climber registration area known as "the cave". Many of you have seen the bullitin board there that has the avy conditons posted during the winter. I am a member of a search an rescue team, and at the most recent Mt. Hood Search and Rescue Council Meeting on monday, I made the suggestion that common waypoints be posted on that bullitin board as well (credit for the suggestion went to CC.com). The forest service liked the idea, so I wouldn't be supprised if you see this happen in the next few weeks. I know its not the answer, and some people won't even notice, but thanks for the suggestion, maybe it will keep someone from calling for help. We do listen to what you guys say, and we appreciate any suggestions made.

It just doesn't happen very often that you can get away with starting late enough to ride the lift, and still make the summit before conditions get very bad..... Saturday seemed to work out perfect. The weather must have dumped right after I left....

I freely admit that I was smart enough to save myself from the never ending slog to the top of the palmer. Shame on me....

No, rode the lifts up at 10am. Started climbing from the top of palmer around 10:30. I packed my snowboard up to the base of crater rock. Topped out at the summit at 2:45. Popped down to my snowboard, and was back at the lodge at 4:05 pm. Nice, relatively quick (at least for me) climb. The weather was great. I forgot the sunscreen, got a real nice burn. Sory the weather turned to crap for you guys on Sunday, cause Saturday was great.

I was up yesterday (Saturday), and I can tell you it was clear and sunny at 2:45pm when I topped out. I have the bad sunburn to prove it..... Conditions were high cloud cover and occasional winds earlier in the day.... What time did the cloud form up??

I did my first solo yesterday (Sat. May 5th) and apparently I took the left P.G. shute. It was perfectly fine with a single regular axe, i left my second tool on my pack.

My avy beacon is an electronic signaling device. Does that count?? Damn government bastards. Next they will put a tax on renting them too, so they can make some money off us. And what about the mountains that are not set up for a MLU, such as, oh every one but Mt. Hood..... Stupid people............make our government work.........

ICS/NIMS (Incident Command System and National Incident Management Systems for those that don't know) can be learned by a monkey, that doesn't mean the implementation is as easy as it says in the paper. That’s like someone reading Freedom of the Hills, and then thinking they are ready for Everest. As far as the Kim’s search, the real questions that should be asked should include why did the Oregon State Police (who have no SAR training or resources) get involved in the command at all. It is very easy to spread the blame around afterward, and as a SAR member I can tell you, only about 15% of the correct information ever makes it out of the command structure in time for the media and armchair rescuers to get it right. I am sure you could find people out there who would say Wampler was in over his head as well (and maybe it’s true). Most searches and rescues turn out to be nothing at all, and very few people ever get to see all the work that is done behind the scenes. I have been privileged to work under some great SAR coordinators, and some horrible ones, and am happy to say that in most cases there are enough seasoned volunteers with lots of knowledge who are able to "step in" and make it appear to be a success in the eyes of the public, when in reality it is nothing but a cluster....

Mullsters team is the American Medical Response Reach and Treat (AMR RAT) Team, a wilderness advanced life support medical team. I am also a part of the team. We highly discourage the use of the figure eight because it causes a need to carry a second device for belaying with. This may not seem like to big of a deal, but our rescue loads often include 10-15 lbs of medical gear (I.E, We bring the ambulance stuff to you, along with ropes, pulleys, pro, and personal equipment. It makes for a duplication of equipment when you can get by with a single piece in the form of a belay/rap device.

I pray your bad luck pays off once more. It is sure frustrating knowing they are just out of reach. Weather sucks, supposed to for the next couple days. Pray Pray Pray....

Planning an expedtion style approach used at places like everest takes months and months of planning, as well as lots of highly trained sherpas and whatnot to make it successful. Mt. Hood is not so high that the altitude is the problem, which is one of the main reasons for using an expedtion style of climb. This just happens to be a poor weather time of the year. Once the weather breaks, the will be teams at the summit within 3-5 hours on the southside, which may be the best route to go to reach the snowcave bound climber that is supposedly right near the summit.

Not to rain on anyones parade with the cell phone signals moving, but there may be some false assumptions being made. When they ping the phone, they show the probable location with a larger circle of accuracy, just like a gps does. It says, you are somewhere in this circle. They have gotten two good traces of pings, with the centers of the circles in different locations. However, there is a small area of overlap in the accuracy circle. So yes, maybe there was some movement, I sure hope that is the case. However, it may be that the phone is located in that overlaping area, and has not moved at all. I am praying for a good outcome, and for the safety of all those still on the mountain looking. Our role (AMR RAT Team)in the mission is done until there is another clackamas/southside mission, or hood river requests our services.

Search teams seem to be holding up ok. Weather is frustrating all of us. They have been really good about rotating crews in and out of the field, at least on the Clackamas side. I have not had any interaction with anyone on the hood river side. It helps knowing there are lots of people out there pulling for us. I hope they can hold out up there. We are all praying for a nice break in the weather. We are pretty sure where the snow cave is; it's just a matter of having good weather to get there. They are not releasing the info on the snow cave location, I think partially to keep anyone from trying to go up and effect the rescue on their own, and possibly becoming another victim. As far as the plb and mlu's are concerned, they are not the same. Like posted above, PLB's are using satellites and also portable receivers when you get close on the ground. PLB's are activated by the user, so they can summon help. MLU's simply transmit a signal out. When a search is initiated, receivers around the mountain are turned on to try and find a signal. Searchers can then track in on the signal. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but cell phone coverage is based on use, and most people who climb a mountain are not up there to gab on their phones. Somebody ripped on T-mobile earlier, but they have gone above and beyond to help us out on this situation, and we are much better informed on a possible location because of them.

Semi Official Update - I was at the Clackamas County Command Post when the final teams came off the mountain today. They found no signs of the climbers on the southside or in zig zag/paradise. They searched these areas due to the infamous fall line on Hood that is well known to locals, which none of these guys are. The teams attempting the summit today were turned back at the top of the palmer snowfield by whiteout conditions and high winds. The weather break everyone was hoping for never happened. I can't speak for the Hood River sheriff about taking volunteers on as searchers, however I am pretty sure you would not be allowed on any of the MRA type teams that have been used so far. Clackamas has suspended operations for now untill they are requested by hood river again. Weather is not supposed to break again till next Tuesday. Keep the vibes up, I know the rescuers out their appreciate your support.