drdirtbag

wtf? this must be Marc Twight yanking the cragrats' chain

I used to live in OR and have climbed Hood dozens of times from all sides. Its a catch 22... safety is a matter of personal judgement that an experienced climber makes for every climb. For a hard but relatively short climb like this, light and fast is usually better than extra pounds of bivi gear (until its not). But if you are experienced at climbing hard routes, you make your own call and you are very conscious of the "until its not" possibility. These guys undoubtedly knew the risks and would resent the second guessing. Its hard for non-climbers to understand these concepts. I have lost fine climbing friends as have many (or most) serious climbers and it is very hard to accept that loss without understanding this central ethic of climbing.

The wind-scoured tracks and axe holes suggest the three were going up together. I wonder where the anchor was relative to the snow caves. It seems to suggest that two tried to rap down from the upper cave. Its a little odd that they would have left the rope as a rap anchor, the way it is tied it couldn't be retrieved and it would have been useful for the terrain below. Maybe they didn't have any long slings, but then why didn't they cut a piece of the rope off? If they went down the Elliot, the best hope is that they are in a schrund or crevasse lower down and alive but unable to climb out...hope for the best.