Overdue climber on Hood

[Dennis H]

Very sorry too read about your friends death. Hang glider pilots call it Intermediate syndrome, Hang pilot for over 15yrs, it sucks watching a friend pass before your eyes!!!!!

[B Deleted_Beck]

It's possible a helmet would have helped (if he wasn't wearing one), but it's also possible it would have been a slower, more painful death... That whole side of the Triangle Moraine was completely wind-scoured, steep, with huge jagged exposed rock outcrops all over the place, divided sheets of ice. You wouldn't fare well at all, in a fall, helmet or not.

 

Most guys seem to take their domepro off just under Crater Rock, where all the perceived rockfall danger is over. I usually leave everything on till I get all the way to the top hut on Palmer- not 'cause I'm smart or for safety, but just because I'm usually too impatient to get down to stop before. But I'll probably just go ahead and make it policy, from here on.

 

As I was standing up on the ridge watching them litter Jared, I turned around to tell another climber I met on the summit that they'd found him- also named Ben- and looked just in time to see HIM bite it in ice too. Hard. I shouted at him if he was alright, lying there motionless in self-arrest position, and he shook his head.... man, I thought I was gonna have a recovery to my left and a rescue to my right. But he was OK.. just bloodied and shook up.

 

Yea.. should probably leave that domepro on till you're back on the resort.