randyfranklin

Fair enough. :-)

Shini, I do a lot of adventure racing - racing others through off-trail mountainous terrain on foot, bike, and kayak. I wouldn't last through one race if I was tripling up on gear like you are. There is a huge difference between going fast in the backcountry, enjoying the experience, and planning successfully enough to get to the objective versus being 100% ready for any possible scenario that may occur. Do you take a radiation suit with you in case of nuclear fallout? I think not - and this is due to an assessment of risk. You just analyze risk differently than the Hood climbers but that doesn't make them wrong or you right. These guys had the intention of going light and fast, they had a decent weather window to do so, and more to the point we don't really know what they have on them in terms of gear. No matter how much gear you have there is still a chance that all that gear isn't going to help much if you've been in a horrible accident. And in fact, it may weigh you down too much to appropriately and quickly respond to an emergency on the mountain. This is the point that several climbers have brought up in response to the "light and fast" discussion.

I'm sorry that us new people treaded into your climbing country club with muddy golf shoes on. We'll clean up after ourselves and leave the place as we found it when everything is over. So much for trying to find some good information, share some good vibes, and have a place to convene on the net to relate to others about a grave situation.

climberwanttobe, i think the issue that is perplexing is what/who were they trying to anchor. I'd actually like to know where on the mountain this was found - the reports were saying that it was close to the caves but I'd like to know how close. I.e., how are the caves and the rope anchor related?

SWNick, Ahhh good call - I hadn't noticed the part running around the rocks in that photo. Interesting.

I'm not saying it is or isn't a bollard. However, when the picture is oriented as if the bollard was meant to be used for a rappel then I think it looks pretty weird. Definitely possible it was used as a anchor to the side though.

For the benefit of analysis I went ahead and rotated the picture of the Y-shape. I believe that original orientation of the photo was more correct - when the Y-shape is pointing "downward" the sunlight on the rockface is very strange...this makes me think the original Y-shape pointing to the side is correct. Thoughts?

We cannot judge their preparation based upon some random forum comments alone. Let's leave the analysis of their preparation until after the situation is over and we know more overall.

msquared, do you have a link to an official report that someone was supposed to be waiting for them at Timberline Lodge. I've seen that discussed here in the thread but I think that is conjecture so far.

Let's keep the random speculation to a constructive minimum here on the forums. So far it is unable to tell if the other two are lost, in a cave, if an avalanche occurred before Kelley James called, etc. etc. Here's a basic list of things we do know: - The climbers began their climb on Friday, December 8th with notes referring to a light and fast ascent. Left car at Cooper Spur trailhead area. Reports suggesting their intention was the north face of Hood via Cooper Spur or one of the twin gullies. - Kelly James called his family in Dallas, TX on Sunday the 10th with unconfirmed reports of injury and the others going for help. - The last cell phone ping received from Kelley James was Tuesday, the 12th. - Sunday the 17th, a body has found in a snow cave 300ft below the summit on the north side. - At this point in time the identity of the body is unknown. - There was a second cave in the same general area of the first cave. - The second cave contained several items. Many reports are stating these items are a length of rope, two ice axes, and a sleeping bag. - There is a Y-shaped marker near the caves. Photo here: http://www.craigwalker.net/images/news/IMG_9564.JPG - There are footsteps leading from one of the caves to the summit. They appear to be moving up and not down. They appear to have associated ice axe holes on both sides of the footprints. Photo here: http://www.craigwalker.net/images/news/IMG_9534.JPG What else do we know for sure? Please modify this list as appropriate.

KATU.com is reporting that a Chinook helicopter has lifted the body from the cave and taken him to Hood River. No article yet, just considered breaking news. ------ They have since removed that news banner...not sure if the climber is being left in the cave tonight or not.

Tami, it is presumably dusk/sundown up there right now. A body recovery action will take manpower and/or equipment usage (helicopter). It is more dangerous for the search-and-rescue folks to attempt a recovery after nightfall when temperatures have dropped and visibility is poor.

Without going into technical specifics, any urls linking to localhost:4001 will not work for people other than yourself. If we need to link to the existing live feed from KATU please link to their server at: http://www.katu.com/news/live/3882262.html

Oh man. Bad news.

AlpineDave, I came to the same conclusions as you. The Y definitely looks "anchorish" to me...it could've been serving the double purpose of having something visible and having an anchor. There are three holes with each set of footsteps. One is on the left, and two are on the right. There are also a couple areas where you can see a set of three footsteps....the original two footsteps of the lead climber and then a "mistake" footstep of a following climber. I take this as positive vibes for them....multiple footsteps in succession and no drag marks (of feet or ice axes). I would take this to mean that everyone walked from this point in a sufficiently healthy and alert manner.