Kevork Djansezian / AP

Bad News

The three missing climbers have yet to be found on Mount Hood. It is 2:35 pm Saturday, and according to the latest update from the Oregonian:

Searchers turning back from summit; weather is too severe

All searchers on Mount Hood have been called down the mountain due to severe weather.

My opinion for what it's worth: If these three guys were able to, they would be flagging the black hawk helicopters wildy and would have been spotted by now. Sad, sad, sad. In addition, my local radio station reports that the avalanche danger on Hood is extreme. I don't think it's worth risking the lives of the rescuers at this point. I don't think these guys are gonna come out of this alive. Damn.....I will post updates if anything changes.

And for those folks (like Bill O'Reilly) who blame mountaineers for costing the taxpayers bucket loads of money for rescues here is an experienced mountain rescue volunteer from the NorthWest: Vichy Democrat

In the last month, I've searched (unsuccessfully, I'm sad to say) for a lost child at Crater Lake National Park (who wandered away from his father as they played near a public, not "backcountry", road). I've also searched for James Kim, the online editor who was trying to find help for his family after their Saab got stuck on an Oregon logging road after they accidentally turned off a regular road in a wild but not "backcountry" area (we found him too late). Other members of my two mountain rescue units have been searching for three climbers who are currently stranded on Mt. Hood (we're holding out hope, and praying the weather will break so we can search higher up), and for two snowmobilers near Mt. Bachelor (a private ski resort leased from the federal government; they found one dead, one alive, and rescued him successfully).

Of these four incidents, only one involved mountaineers. Only one involved truly backcountry federal land (the others were either not on federal land, or were on federal land leased to private enterprises like a ski resort, and/or were accessed by regular, mapped highways). Although many people blame "mountain climbers" for racking up rescue costs, only one of these incidents involved mountaineers -- but mountaineers were called in as volunteers to assist in all four; in other words, the mountaineering community more than pulls its weight.

The People's Republic of Seabrook relates a harrowing tale of Climbing at Mount Hood with his students of oregon Episcopalian School. Two years later the same field trip climbed Mount Hood and 11 people perished. Link

Two years later, on the same sophomore climbing trip, 11 people died. I knew most of them. One of them had been my supervisor, a couple had been students I’d taught, and a couple others I’d coached on the JV soccer team. This group found themselves caught in conditions almost identical to what had happened to my group, and yet things went horribly, terribly wrong…and very quickly.

It was then that I realized how close that I and the group I accompanied up Mt. Hood in May, 1984 had come to a very tragic end. I’ll never know why we were so fortunate when, just two years later, so many died so tragically. I wish I knew, but I know that those answers will never come…and perhaps it’s just as well. It wouldn’t change anything or bring anyone back.