Hunt for Mt. Hood climbers delayed

COOPER SPUR, Ore. – Rescue teams headed up the flanks of treacherous Mount Hood on Monday to search for three climbers reported missing in heavy snow, but were ordered off the mountain when conditions became too dangerous.

There was no indication of the fate of the climbers, two Texans and a New Yorker who were scaling the mountain’s difficult north face but did not meet friends at Timberline Lodge on the south side as they had been scheduled to do on Friday or Saturday.

Saying they planned to resume the search today, members of the seven three-member rescue teams described ugly weather, with snow and visibility at less than 5 feet, and the fear of falling into crevasses.

“We’re dealing with gusts of 85 miles an hour that were knocking us back,” said Tom Scully of the Hood River mountain rescue unit known as the Crag Rats.

“They’re going to regroup, wait for a break in the weather, and then go back up on the mountain,” said Deputy Marc Smith of the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office.

Smith said teams were well equipped and experienced but did not get past the 8,500-foot level of the 11,239-foot peak.

Meteorologist were predicting up to 18 inches of snow on the mountain over the next two days.

One climber made a cell phone call from a snow cave the three were in atop Eliot Glacier just below the summit on Sunday. The other two apparently left the cave on Saturday to seek help.

The trio left their car on Wednesday to climb Oregon’s tallest peak, and had planned to spend two nights on the mountain.

Authorities were unable to re-establish cell phone contact with the climber who called

None of the three had climbed the mountain before. About 10,000 people a year start for the summit, and generally 20-25 have to be rescued.

“From the conversation it left us very concerned for the person’s welfare,” Hood River County Chief Deputy Jerry Brown said.

The climbers are Kelly James, 48, who called from the cave, and Brian Hall, 37, both of Dallas, Texas; and Jerry “Nikko” Cooke, 36, of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Steve Rollins, a rescue leader with Portland Mountain Rescue, which sent two teams up the south side of Mount Hood, said the route the climbers took has slopes of 50 or 60 degrees with occasional sheer walls of vertical ice.

“We don’t know if they made the summit or not,” Rollins said.

Rollins said the weather created deadly conditions.

There is “very hard ice, coupled with very high winds,” he said. “You have a lot of snow on very hard ice. There is no easy way off the mountain.”

He said a search and rescue team would also search the north face.

On the south side of the mountain, Clackamas County Sheriff’s Department was at Timberline Lodge. Spokesman Jim Strovink hoped that after leaving their companion, the two other climbers also found refuge.

“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.”

Brown said his office had contacted two of the families, who said their relatives were experienced climbers.