Government Camp, Ore. – The three men had all climbed bigger mountains.
When they set out Thursday to tackle Oregon’s biggest peak, their plan was to practice a “rapid ascent,” which puts a premium on traveling with a minimum amount of gear. They would get to the 11,239-foot summit of Mount Hood and be back to their base camp within a day or so.
But the weather quickly went wrong for the three experienced hikers, who remained missing Tuesday evening despite an intensive search effort by 40 rescue workers and a helicopter crew.
Authorities believe one of the men is injured or disoriented from the cold and holed up in a snow cave near the summit. Meanwhile, they say, the other two apparently got lost while descending the mountain to seek help for their colleague.
Rescue crews trying to retrace the men’s potential routes have been hampered by whiteout conditions.
“It is very hard to see more than a few feet in front of you,” searcher Marty Johnson reported of Tuesday’s efforts. “So, at this moment, you could not locate them unless you stumbled onto their path.”
The injured man, Kelly James, 48, of Dallas, called his family Sunday from his cellphone to report that he was stranded and that the group was in some trouble, said his older brother, Frank.
The hiking party’s location is only about 50 miles east of Portland and within range of cell towers. But Kelly James – who has climbed the taller Mount Rainier in neighboring Washington at least 15 times and proposed to his wife there, his family said – has not answered the phone since.
Authorities have been able to gather an approximate location for him as, they say, the phone retained battery power and broadcast a “ping” signal in response to incoming calls through the day Tuesday.
Frank James and family members of the other two men – Brian Hall, 37, also of Dallas, and Jerry “Nikko” Cooke, 36, of Brooklyn, N.Y. – emphasized that the climbers were all experienced, dressed in warm clothing and trained in survival techniques.
And so they held out hope Tuesday that the trio was waiting out the stormy weather in the snow cave and would turn up alive.
Rescue teams planned to debrief and map out a strategy for today, said Deputy Gary Tiffany of the Hood River sheriff’s office, which has been coordinating the search. More snow and high winds were expected, according to the National Weather Service.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
