Ice-Ninja

great post

As many have also stated I think that "Y" is almost defintely a boulard. I can even see the slight curve with the rope. The guy being interview right now by Lary King knows his shit and is doing a great job.

I only replied to whoever to post this. Not directed at you. This is for those who want to judge their prep. screw judgement on the preparation because some guys asked on a website. This is retarded. I ask many websites for first hand experience. I trust no one source especially guidebooks. Get off of them. They did a great job. The mountains are not easy. They are going to some court to play ball or some golf course. Things happen in our sport. Quit acting like you all do every possible thing perfect and get off of them. This sucks.

definitely!

Anything is possible with old footprints in snow. I am not trying to shoot you down. I am trying to be optimistic eventhough I am not. I agree with someone else. Some who doesn't have the presence of mind to talk coherently did not dig two snow caves and pick which gear to leave. I think the first cave with the "Y" is a rope and boulard. like most of you pointed out. They dug it the 1st cave, tried to rap out. Couldn't, came back and went to plan B. Get Kelly in the easier ground and get down. That didn't work, let's dig in here and wait. you know what happened then. Let's try to get down now, it is letting up. It picks up again.... I don't think us talking about senarios is a bad thing. I think they were studs and did it all right. But we all know there is still a gamble involved. If you all want me to quit with this I will. But it is nice to bullshit with others who know there shit. This sucks. I hate seeing other climbers die.

bridger, that doesn't explain the footsteps leaving the cave.

Cell phones batteries may have already been dead due to cold. Hopefully some miricle happens.

He also thought his partners were on a plane and the other in town so any self medical assessment is probably out. Not being an ass here. just an observation.

they just said that there are tracks leading out of that cave. That is good news!

It sounds like a concussion. of course I am speculating. But combining body heat would be the thing todo for the immediate emergency so he wouldn't be making a call by himself. Bonking is possible but doesn't explain the delerium. Maybe a possibilty is that he got a concussion they tried to get help. I am writing this more for myself. It is really bad news.

wow this sucks. Nothing else to say.

Oh right! So this sounds like the gear left behind from a single person.

The other two must have came back to the cave. When leaving Kelly the first day they would have been strong and not leave their axes. They must have came back if it was really bad. Why leave axes though? In bad snow. Doesn't make sense.

no you would never leave you axe.

shit that really sucks.

I don't think the talking heads recognize probing.

ok, they say that the rescuers are at the target.

I am not going to get into flame wars. It wasn't said all at once. That was two parts of the same interview.

Jim Whitaker's cnn interview is a bit annoying. Climbers today relie on rescue but in his day they relied on teamwork. Then he is asked if he has ever been rescued and he says "yes" on Denali. So anyone who is rescued today is substandard but not when he needed it. I wish someone would point out this cave.

Cool, thanks for the breakdown. well, here is to some good news today.

Cool thanks. Should I keep playing devil's advocate. At some point it is better to keep pushing to get on the quicker descent. They were very experienced and may have considered that a descent could take a lot longer. Especially if there is less avy danger and more protection from the storm. I don't know Mt. Hood at all so I am talking out my ass a bit. I am just thinking about all this. It is driving me crazy.

I've read most post but I haven't seen any info about the regular route. I assume that is where the two climbers would be if they were so close to the summit. that is what I would do, push to the summit and go down the easiest route when it was getting bad. It doesn't seem to make sense that they would descend the harder route. Any thoughts? If this was already brought up I didn't see it. There are a lot of post here.