MOUNTAINEERING – Rescuers who had come to a man’s aid after he tumbled down Mount Hood in Oregon say he had not been using an ice ax.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports today that witnesses heard 32-year-old John Thorton Jenkins say, “I should have had my ice ax in my hand,” shortly after he tumbled about 600 feet down the slope.

Rescuers believe Jenkins had been hiking with trekking poles. He had been pronounced dead Sunday after an Oregon Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopter brought him to a Portland hospital.

Rescuers say they are not sure if Jenkins had been climbing up or down when he fell.

Portland Mountain Rescue leader Steve Rollins says conditions had been good at the time, but the area Jenkins tumbled from was icy.