Cooper Spur, Ore. – Searchers for three lost climbers on Mount Hood hoped for a weather break today from the wind, snow and ice that has stymied high- and low-tech efforts to rescue them from the mountain’s dangerous north face, where they have been reported missing since Sunday.
But forecasters said much worse weather is on the way.
Eighteen inches of new snow dumped in the higher elevations through Wednesday night and into this morning, said Hood River County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Rockett.
“They do not expect the new storm until this afternoon,” Rockett said. “That means the Sno-Cat can go up between 6 a.m and 7 a.m.” Searchers on Wednesday said they were kept to about 6,200 feet on the 11,239-foot peak where one of the three was last reported to be in a snow cave near the summit. There has been no sign of the other two, who left the cave Saturday, apparently to go for help.
“We have hit a brick wall at 8,500 feet,” Hood River County Sheriff Joe Wampler said at the end of Wednesday’s search.
Plans today call for two staging camps on the north and south sides of the mountain so teams could head to the summit quickly if the weather breaks.
A “ping” from the cell phone of Kelly James, 38, of Dallas, Texas, who was left in the cave, tracked him to between the 10,000-11,000-foot elevation on Sunday when he made a four-minute call to his family to say the climbing party was in trouble.
Rescue workers and T-Mobile officials said Wednesday that the phone also had initiated a call at 7:20 a.m. Monday that didn’t get through but that the phone has since stopped responding to signals, possibly because the battery was dead or the phone had been moved or turned off.
FBI officials arrived on Wednesday to lend their expertise in cell phone tracking to that of a private company.
Scores of men, and a few women, have crisscrossed on foot as much of the area where the men may be as weather has permitted but to no avail.
The elements have kept modern technology from doing much better.
A Nevada Air National Guard C-130 with heat-sensing devices flew over the mountain on Wednesday but had to turn back because the turbulence, It is expected back on today. Two Army Chinook helicopters are due from Fort Lewis, Wash, although high winds have kept a military helicopter already there grounded for all but a brief time.
Aracar, a high-tech company from Morrison, Colo., hoped to send up at least three drones, one-pound battery-operated plastic propeller planes, but could not because of winds, said John Blitch, head of the nonprofit.
They are equipped with heat-sensitive devices and fly 300 feet to 500 feet above the surface, controlled by a laptop and capable of detecting heat sources that could come from the climbers. He said he hopes for a window on today.
Iomax of Denver, described as a wireless and data network security company, hopes to use signals gear to better pinpoint James’ location. Iomax says it can trace even the faintest cell phone signal and has developed technology often used in crime detection.
Despite all that, weather predictions indicate searchers won’t be able to get near where James is thought to be until the weekend at the earliest.
Winds near the summit are likely to surpass 100 mph today before easing, then daytime temperatures above 10,000 feet are to go below zero.
James, his longtime climbing partner Brian Hall, 37, of Dallas, and Jerry “Nikko” Cooke, 36, of Brooklyn, N.Y., set out on a quick trip up the difficult route, traveling only with the gear and food they thought such a climb would require. They began the actual climb last Thursday, planning to spend two days on the mountain and descend the relatively gentle south side to Timberline Lodge where friends were expecting them.
The north side has slopes of 50 or 60 degrees and sheer walls of ice, a dangerous climb even in good weather.
Denied the higher elevations by weather, teams searched lower canyons Wednesday on the chance that Hall and Cooke had gotten down that far.
A friend of Cooke’s, Willie Nash, told NBC’s “Today” show that he had planned to go but, at the last moment, didn’t. He didn’t give a reason.
“I can’t help but think that if I was there, things could have turned out differently,” Nash said. “But at the same time I feel that the three of them going was their own decision. It was still a very practical choice for them. They didn’t need a fourth person there. I just wish them my best.” Searchers and a family member said Wednesday they were keeping their hopes up.
“You’ve got to be optimistic. There’s a slim chance they’re going to get out of there,” said Bernie Wells, coordinator of the mountain rescue group Hood River Crag Rats, a veteran of more than 30 years of Mount Hood rescues.
But he said under the worst of conditions the issue is as much the survival of the search parties as it is of those who are lost.
Frank James of Orlando, Fla., Kelly’s older brother, said the families have gathered in nearby Hood River to wait.
“There’s no question they are frightened,” he said. “There is a lot of hugging. There is a lot of praying.”
