midnightrider

It sounds like the latest theory from S&R is, 2 of the climbers chose to continue because the choice was either to continue or stay and die and Kelly James was too exhausted to continue. As the other 2 continued they were blown off the mtn by the hurricane force winds and are buried under the new snow where they fell. Does that sound right? It sounds like they made a bad choice concerning weather and gear, and got slowed coming down the summit, for whatever reason.

why would you need someone to cut the rope to do that? Just jump off the mountain. No need to cut the rope for that. He might have cut the rope if they were hung and couldnt move. I don't think these are the kind of men who give up. I think they got blew off the mountain.

The autopsy report came back that Mr. James had no injuries. I "speculate" that he was either too exhausted to continue or he had continued and the other two had fallen off the mtn and he went back to the snow cave unable to continue alone and made a desperate call to his wife for help. I think the latter makes more sense.

If you think its wrong to speculate in this forum thats fine then don't. But why do you feel the need to tell others what they should or shouldn't post? I don't think thats fair.

I've have been reading the board for a couple of days. I just wanted to comment on several of the informative posts I have read, that made this forum worth reading. I think 2 of the climbers were descending above the area referred to as the gullies and James was trying to lower them because of the difficulty in trying to climb down against the hurricane force wind. In the process he dislocated his shoulder. The climbers were left on their own to descend and fell to the death being blown off. That makes the most sense to me. I think they all most likely had cellphones (for emergency, and in case one was lost). If James had been the only one who was hurt, I think the other 2 would have also made attempts to use their cellphones to call for help for James. I also think the other 2 might have been able to put his shoulder back in place and he could have continued. James didn't tell his family about his injury and I believe he didn't tell them about the probable death of the other 2 climbers because he didn't want to worry his family anymore. He knew he wouldn't be able to descend after the other 2 had failed and knew he didnt have the equipment needed to stay very long in a snow cave on the mtn. I think this was part of the reason he seemed delirious on the phone (in addition to the injury and altitude). This is what sounds the most reasonable to me.