Hood River, Ore. – Two climbers still missing on Mount Hood may have plummeted from a massive cliff near the summit after they left their injured companion behind in a snow cave to get help.
Sheriff Joe Wampler offered that scenario as rescuers went back up the mountain in helicopters Monday to retrieve the body of Kelly James from the snow cave just below Mount Hood’s summit and try again to find his two companions, missing for more than a week.
But the sheriff spoke grimly about the chances that the pair were still alive, particularly if they were not in a snow cave.
“If they did not get in a hole somewhere, we might be beyond survivability periods. You can last a long time in a hole. So we are looking for a hole,” Wampler said. If they had fallen and been buried by the blizzards, “it’s 10 feet of snow that these guys could be under. I’d be real concerned.”
Blizzards and wind gusts of up to 100 mph blasted the mountain last week.
James’ body was discovered Sunday and taken off the mountain Monday for medical examination, said Capt. Mike Braibish of the Oregon National Guard. He had suffered an unspecified arm injury, Wampler said.
Wampler said climbing equipment found on the mountain – including two slings and two aluminum anchors driven into the snow – led rescuers to believe that James’ companions, Brian Hall and Jerry “Nikko” Cooke, had tried to secure themselves to the steep slope. That was the last sign of the two.
Authorities were “narrowing the likelihood that there may have been an accident,” the sheriff said.
The spot on the 11,239-foot mountain where the two men vanished is commonly known as “the gullies,” with a 60-degree slope and a 2,500-foot drop-off. Thirteen deaths over the past 40 years have been recorded in the area.
James, a 48-year-old landscape architect from Dallas, made a cellphone call from the cave Dec. 10, telling his family the party was in trouble. Hall, 37, is from Dallas, and Cooke, 36, from New York City.
Frank James, brother of Kelly James, choked back tears when he said a ring found on his brother’s body inside the snow cave had confirmed his identity.
“This is a difficult day for all three families,” James said. “I feel that I have two other brothers still on the mountain.”
