Hood River, Ore. – Teams looking for three missing climbers on Mount Hood found a body Sunday after searching a second snow cave near the summit, an official said.
The body had not been identified, said Pete Hughes, a spokesman for the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office. The victim was thought to be one of the missing climbers, authorities said.
Marc Smith, another sheriff’s spokesman, said the body had not been retrieved from the 11,239- foot mountain.
A colleague of Smith’s, Karl Tesch, had said the body was taken by helicopter to Hood River. But Smith said that information was incorrect.
“I have confirmed the body is still on the mountain,” Smith said.
“Our hearts are going out to the families right now,” said Capt. Mike Braibish, spokesman for the Oregon National Guard.
The body was found in a snow cave – but not the one that was first searched earlier Sunday, officials said. The second cave was in the same area.
Braibish said rescuers would be coming off the mountain early Sunday evening and would review the information before making further plans.
“We remain hopeful,” Braibish said. “We are going to still collect information and pursue the rescue of the two other climbers.”
A sleeping bag, ice axes and rope were found in the first snow cave, said another Sheriff’s Office spokesman, Sgt. Gerry Tiffany.
It is believed that both caves are in the region where missing climber Kelly James made a distress call on his cellphone to relatives a week ago.
Taking advantage of clear skies and a sharp drop in the wind, rescuers focused on the first cave Sunday after a helicopter spotted a rope laid out in a Y shape, which climbers often use to signal their location.
Footprints were also found at the site. Tiffany said the prints appeared to head up the mountain, toward the summit, but were blown out by the wind at higher points.
Weather conditions have been harsh since the three were reporting missing eight days ago, with heavy snowfall and wind gusts of up to 100 mph. The snow stopped Saturday, but wind up to 50 mph blew the fresh snow, hampering visibility.
Skies were blue Sunday, the wind was still, and temperatures at the summit were near zero.
Searchers dug through the first cave, about 300 feet below the summit, to ensure that no one was there and took the equipment, which officials will examine for clues.
Tiffany said it’s clear that whoever stayed there “hunkered down in the snow and they survived there for a while” and that they climbed out and could have made a snow cave elsewhere.
