dan_forester Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 glad to hear that these guys seemed like competent climbers; that gives me hope that they'll make it all right. best wishes to the climbers and the rescuers involved.
lbeam Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 (edited) DonnV: I agree. Call the ranger station. This could be helpful info. Edited December 11, 2006 by lbeam
Weekend_Climberz Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 Positive mojo from Seattle coming down to our fellow PDXr's. Hang in there guys :tup:
high_on_rock Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 News just reported that the one in the cave is from Texas
DonnV Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 News just reported that the one in the cave is from Texas And has been found, according to Clackamas County dispatch. It's now a continuing search for the two that headed down Cooper Spur.
barkernews Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 (edited) The following is from the Oregonian. My computer will be out of cell-phone range for a while. Conditions up here are pretty bad... Authorities have identified the trio of stranded climbers as Kelly James, 48, of Dallas, Brian Hall, 37, of Dallas, and Jerry “Nikko” Cooke, 36, of Brooklyn, N.Y. James was injured in the descent; Hall and Cooke left him behind in a snowcave while they descended for help. Searchers this morning tracked a ping from a cell phone at 10,300 feet, authorities said. The signal was transmitted about 4:20 a.m. The call was made from where James is stranded, authorities said. The other two climbers do not have a cell phone with them. Teams of searchers have taken off from Cooper Spur and Timberline to rescue the trio. As many as 20 searchers will attempt to climb to the summit, Hughes said. But already heavy snow is stalling search efforts. A Sno-Cat carrying searchers who set out from Cooper Spur this morning got stuck in snow at 7,200 feet, authorities said. Climbers sometimes carry mountain locator units, which send signals about their whereabouts to rescuers. But search officials said they do not believe the men had such a unit with them on their climb. “We still get plenty of climbers who don’t equip themselves with them,” Hughes said. “It’s not the smart thing to do.” The two who went for help took the Cooper Spur route, the same route the trio took up the mountain, search officials said. The nature of the climber's injuries was not immediately known this morning. James made a phone call to his wife at one point, authorities said. Hood River County sheriff’s Deputy Pete Hughes said the call was “fairly disorganized, from someone who was in a lot of stress and basically not giving good information.” The group told friends they wanted the climb to be a challenge. “They wanted ice, they wanted to climb, they weren’t looking for the easy route,” Hughes said. “That is definitely what they were getting when they took the north side of the route.” So far this morning, at least one search team has left for the summit, officials said. That team departed from Timberline. Another team was to leave from Cooper Spur. Searchers will be making a treacherous ascent in what a Hood River sheriff’s official called hostile conditions. “We have three people who are missing now,” Jerry Brown, the sheriff’s chief deputy, told The Oregonian this morning. “We will have 18 more people on the face that we will be very much concerned about keeping track of.” Brown said conditions on the mountain are hostile. “We don’t know what the wind conditions are at the peak at this time or really above 6,000,” he said. Conditions on the mountain are poor and are expected to deteriorate as the day progresses. Visibility is so poor that an air search has not begun, though the Oregon National Guard is on standby this morning, Hughes said. “The Air National Guard has a team ready to go but we cannot do it with current conditions,” he said. Winds at the 10,000 elevation are up to 70 mph, he said. Edited December 11, 2006 by barkernews
DonnV Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 And has been found, according to Clackamas County dispatch. It's now a continuing search for the two that headed down Cooper Spur. Hope I didn't post that too soon. They gave me the number for Hood River dispatch for more info and that dispatcher had no word of anyone having been found yet. ???????
Crackman Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 I climbed Hood via one of DK chutes Fri am. Took a good look down at Cooper Spur from the summit (~11:30) but didn't see any climbers on the route. A bit windy on top but otherwise a beautiful day. Things have definitely got a lot worse since them. Sure hope all 3 are OK.
Off_White Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 Jerry Cooke from Brooklyn is Fuggedaboudit, one of the two who went for help. I'm sure hoping for a happy ending.
G-spotter Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 fingers crossed, hoping for the best. c'mon guys
jordop Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 Climbers sometimes carry mountain locator units, which send signals about their whereabouts to rescuers. But search officials said they do not believe the men had such a unit with them on their climb. “We still get plenty of climbers who don’t equip themselves with them,” Hughes said. “It’s not the smart thing to do.” Ummm, okay . . .?
plexus Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 Best of luck to the rescuers, the injured party found and his two partners. Hopefully they didn't do anything rash.
lbeam Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 According to KATU news, it sounds like the searchers have been called down due to weather conditions. Forecast shows that it won't clear up until the end of week. I don't know how long these guys can hang in. No word if they found any of the climbers.
ZimZam Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 Good joss sent your way fellas. Hang in there.
ptavv Posted December 11, 2006 Posted December 11, 2006 I know the freezing level is supposed to rise to 8k feet on Wednesday (according to NWAC anyway). Not sure how that'll impact the search for them.
barkernews Posted December 12, 2006 Posted December 12, 2006 WX balloon above Salem clocked winds at 90MPH sustained earlier today. We're at T-Line and we're getting gusts to 40. Hang in there guys...
cluck Posted December 12, 2006 Author Posted December 12, 2006 Just got down off the mountain and unfortunately all 3 are still missing. Conditions were pretty rough up there today. We started up the south side but were only able to get to 9000 feet. There was zero vis and it was snowing buckets and very windy. We were very concerned about avalanche conditions. From what I understand, the teams on the north side encountered similar conditions. The sheriff called us back around noon because of the storm that was coming (with predicted 90 mph winds at the 7000 foot level). The storm hit around 1:00 and all hell broke loose as we were descending in total whiteout conditions. Fortunately, all the searchers are down safe and sound. Unfortunately, no teams were able to make it to the summit today so James must spend another night alone up there. I sure hope he's able to hang in there. DonV - I heard the information about the climbers being seen in the TJ A-frame. I assume you called the ranger station - thanks very much. That was definitely the right thing to do. The info on their route will really help us out when we can get teams up there. "Somewhere below the summit on the north side" is a very difficult place to search so any info to help us narrow it down is helpful. The cell phone companies are working some magic to try and pin-point cell signals. There's some speculation that they might be able to get a bead on the 2 that went for help. As far as folks who want to help out, I'm not sure if there's any way you can get formally involved in the search. In today's litigious society, I suspect the sheriff would be wary of putting "civilians" to work. But, if you do happen to be up there back-country skiing (in Considerable to High avalanche danger) be sure to keep an eye out and have a cell phone handy. Here's to hoping these guys can make it through another night...
carolyn Posted December 12, 2006 Posted December 12, 2006 Sending well wishes and hoping for the best!
Mark_Husbands Posted December 12, 2006 Posted December 12, 2006 One climber from New York (fuggedaboutit?)and two from Texas. hope for better weather... http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003472215_webmissingclimbers11.html the comment within this article about gear purchases is almost unbelievable.
ClimbingPanther Posted December 12, 2006 Posted December 12, 2006 Dude! That's some scary sounding weather. I feel so bad for those guys It reminds us to be prepared to survive. I sure hope they're able to dig in and stay warm through all of this. *praying*
gslater Posted December 12, 2006 Posted December 12, 2006 the comment within this article about gear purchases is almost unbelievable. Indeed. "They had purchased a great deal of equipment at REI before going up to Mount Hood." Bizarre.
Alpine_Tom Posted December 12, 2006 Posted December 12, 2006 (edited) More positive thoughts headed their way. Here's hoping they have the sense to stay battened down and not take off wandering through the storm, and that they end up with nothing more than a great story to tell. Edited December 12, 2006 by Alpine_Tom
Alpine_Tom Posted December 12, 2006 Posted December 12, 2006 the comment within this article about gear purchases is almost unbelievable. Indeed. "They had purchased a great deal of equipment at REI before going up to Mount Hood." Bizarre. Coming from Texas, it's not unreasonable that they didn't have adequite cold-weather gear. Or maybe they had to purchase a stove to replace one that the TSA confiscated on their flight? Or they wanted to buy gear in Oregon and save the sales tax? Not everyone has the enlightened contempt of REI that we cc-commers cultivate.
Mark_Husbands Posted December 12, 2006 Posted December 12, 2006 I'm ambivalent about REI, but in the context the second part of the statement seems very out of place to me. "The one good thing is that these climbers are very well-skilled climbers," Strovink said. "They had purchased a great deal of equipment at REI before going up to Mount Hood."
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