Preparation key to survival for climbers
Practically on the doorstep of Oregon’s largest city, thousands attempt to summit Mount Hood each year — mainly during May and June, when snow conditions are the least dangerous.
At 11,239-feet, the glacier-flanked volcano in the Cascade Range is one of the most-climbed peaks in the world.
No state or federal agencies compile figures on fatalities on Mount Hood, but a list compiled by The Oregonian newspaper from its archives showed 35 have died since 1981.
They include a snowboarder from Argentina who tried to ride his board down from the summit in May 2002 before falling off the 2,500-foot cliff above Eliot Glacier — the same spot that may have claimed the lives of the remaining two missing climbers in the long search this past month on Mount Hood.
One of the deadliest Mount Hood accidents occurred in May 1986.
Seven students and two adults leading a spring climb for the Oregon Episcopal School died on the mountain after they dug a snow cave during a sudden storm that caused whiteout conditions.
The guide, Ralph Summers, and three students survived.
Another veteran Portland Mountain Rescue climber, Rocky Henderson, was part of the search team 20 years ago, and since has seen many other desperate situations unfold.
Henderson said each tragedy holds a lesson to be learned.
“What would I do if my buddy got injured right now? Do we have a plan? Does my cell phone have good batteries? What is our plan if the weather turns bad? What is our plan if we don’t make it back before it gets dark?” he said.
That particular tragedy led to a mountain locator unit program unique to Mount Hood — electronic rental devices that send out signals to help rescue crews track climbers who use them.
Henderson estimates that only about half the climbers on Mount Hood bother to carry the devices. But he said everybody on the mountain should have some way of tracking their location, such as the rental units or GPS satellite devices. Just carrying a cell phone with a backup battery can make a difference, he said.
“Even then, there’s no guarantee you can get help in time,” Henderson said.
Sheriff Joe Wampler, who oversaw the heartbreaking effort to find Kelly James, Brian Hall and Jerry Cooke, had these words for those who want to attempt to summit Mount Hood:
“If you’re going to (summit) Mount Hood or any other mountain, it has to be well planned, and time of year has a lot to do with that.”
And you have to have enough provisions to last for a while, in case you get into trouble, the sheriff said.
“You plan on having to stay out there in case something happens.”