qwas

definate top 10 of rude posts. pretty sad.

wow atreides, that's a lot of f bombs for one post. good job man.

kay, don't think it was hall who posted here, it was cooke. from reading his posts it sounds like they just met up this summer on rainier, so I don't think the 3 had much climbing time together. may not matter in this case, who knows right now. I still believe that weather was a little risky this year for that climb. we've had one storm aftern another with only short breaks. yes that friday had a nice break but there was a whole series of storms moving in quickly after that. I just think the window of opportunity was a little too short for such a dangerous climb. I respect all opinions otherwise. I know this can be a wonderful winter route, but I believe it's usually done during the winter weather patterns show a strong ridge forecast for several days.

I live in the pdx area and the winter here has been lousy so far (they all are at some point). It definately was not a good time to climb the mountain. There were no surprises in the weather forecasts, big storms were forecast to move in well in advance. They had way too tight of a window and the storms have been coming in quite fierce all year. We've had at least 4 or 5 windstorms already in the valleys. Like everyone I'm devestated by what happened, but I sure wish they would have not tried to do what they did this year. I'd like to know many people besides these 3 and the rescuers have summited Hood this December? From the route they chose?