Mt. Hood(OR) Missing Climbers Update

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » December 18, 2006, 12:55 am

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/17/missin ... index.html

The search teams found a body today in an ice cave, along with some gear. The assumption is that it is the guy who was injured, since the other guys were not found--they had split out days ago while the one was left behind in the 'shelter'.

Damn shame that the one did not survive--although even with proper gear, 10 days is just too much for most. the weather up there (and down here for the most part of late) has been less than ideal. My hopes are fading for the remaining guys. =/

Even though they seemed to be well-equipped as far as emergency gear--not to mention mountain experience--the weather has just been plain awful at elevation the last couple weeks. I hope for the best but time had been running out for a few days now. Maybe they found a better shelter and made it below the timber line, where they could find dry wood for a fire? I sure hope so.

Sirensa · Post by **Sirensa** » December 18, 2006, 1:48 am

Yeah, I really hope they find the other two alive, but I'm kinda doubtful at this point. It's really sad, especially considering how prepared and experienced they seemed to be. So sad. =(

Arborealus · Post by **Arborealus** » December 18, 2006, 2:33 am

Damn shame...These guys were all good technical climbers but when it goes bad on any technical climb it can kill the best.

kyoukan · Post by **kyoukan** » December 18, 2006, 4:15 am

Skills and preparation can never compensate for morbid stupidity. Who fucking climbs Mt. Hood in the middle of December? There should be some known law that if you go missing from a mountain climbing expedition in the middle of the goddam winter then no one is going to go and look for you.

Midnyte_Ragebringer · December 18, 2006, 1:26 pm

Can't believe all this attention is being brought to these assholes. Dozens of niggers were found with forks up their asses....where's the media coverage??????

vn_Tanc · Post by **vn_Tanc** » December 18, 2006, 1:30 pm

Midnyte_Ragebringer wrote:Can't believe all this attention is being brought to these assholes. Dozens of niggers were found with forks up their asses....where's the media coverage??????

That's the most pathetic troll you've ever come out with. Which is going some.

miir · Post by **miir** » December 18, 2006, 1:33 pm

kyoukan wrote:Skills and preparation can never compensate for morbid stupidity. Who fucking climbs Mt. Hood in the middle of December? There should be some known law that if you go missing from a mountain climbing expedition in the middle of the goddam winter then no one is going to go and look for you.

Technically, it's not winter until Thursday.

Bubba Grizz · Post by **Bubba Grizz** » December 18, 2006, 5:07 pm

Midnyte_Ragebringer wrote:Can't believe all this attention is being brought to these assholes. Dozens of niggers were found with forks up their asses....where's the media coverage??????

Sionistic · Post by **Sionistic** » December 18, 2006, 5:43 pm

I dont know about worst troll attempt ever, that line was actually pretty funny.

Lalanae · Post by **Lalanae** » December 18, 2006, 6:02 pm

Sionistic wrote:I dont know about worst troll attempt ever, that line was actually pretty funny.

I thought it was dumb.

No, dumb is being too nice.

Hesten · Post by **Hesten** » December 18, 2006, 6:55 pm

Lalanae wrote:
Sionistic wrote:I dont know about worst troll attempt ever, that line was actually pretty funny.
I thought it was dumb.

No, dumb is being too nice.

Well, what can you expect from Midnyte

Nick · Post by **Nick** » December 18, 2006, 11:38 pm

No Sionistic it wasn't funny it was fucking retarded. Get a fucking sense of humour.

Midnyte, you at least used to have beliefs and thoughts, you're degrading those already horrifically bigoted, racist partisan viewpoints by coming off with shit like that. You're not that low. for fuck sake at least respect yourself.

And yeah, these climbers.....surely it was dumb as shit to go climbing in the middle of winter in such conditions. I don't see why it's worldwide worthy news. They could easily have avoided such a fucking horrible painful lonely death by just going in the spring.

Cartalas · Post by **Cartalas** » December 19, 2006, 12:14 am

Nick wrote:No Sionistic it wasn't funny it was fucking retarded. Get a fucking sense of humour.

Midnyte, you at least used to have beliefs and thoughts, you're degrading those already horrifically bigoted, racist partisan viewpoints by coming off with shit like that. You're not that low. for fuck sake at least respect yourself.

And yeah, these climbers.....surely it was dumb as shit to go climbing in the middle of winter in such conditions. I don't see why it's worldwide worthy news. They could easily have avoided such a fucking horrible painful lonely death by just going in the spring.

pssstt... Its not even winter there yet.

Sionistic · Post by **Sionistic** » December 19, 2006, 12:22 am

Just imagine some politician getting blasted because he was somehow responsible for those climbers. The media starts putting more and more scrutiny on him. So finally he hits his breaking point and yells out that line. Its thought processes like this that make politics funny to me

You take some people online way too seriously.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » December 19, 2006, 12:24 am

I don't take them seriously, I just point out when they're being thick.

Lynks · Post by **Lynks** » December 19, 2006, 12:34 am

I don't think hundreds of thousands of dollars should be spent on the recovery of people doing dangerous things.

Arborealus · Post by **Arborealus** » December 19, 2006, 12:54 am

I imagine these guys were tuning up for a bigger climb. Mt. Hood is a common technical trainer climb for the bigger climbs. The storm hit a good bit harder than anyone really predicted. They knew the risks, accepted them, took them, and died. It happens.

Death after a summit or even fighting to the summit...is not a horrible way to go. They died doing something they really loved. Beats a slow death from cancer in my book any day.

I got pinned in a really bad hydraulic once while canoeing a river I loved on a beautiful run, with great friends. Just before I blacked out I had the most peaceful so this is it moment. I was actually angry for a bit when I was resuscitated.

Why is it news? 'Cause everyone who has never climbed thinks its brave and envies those who hang it out like that...or thinks it is crazy and fool hardy and likes to say see I told you it was crazy...Beats me why it is news...I think a lot of people follow stories like this looking for a heroic ending. Most people will miss the heroism in this ending...

Most people never understand that "To die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier."

I agree that hundreds of thousands of dollars should not be spent rescuing people who engage in excessively dangerous activities or perhaps climbers who wish to be rescued in situations like this should be forced to contribute to a fund used to finance such operations in order to be eligible for such rescues.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » December 19, 2006, 1:54 am

Still not nice when anyone dies doing something cool though :/

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » December 19, 2006, 2:36 am

Arborealus wrote: I got pinned in a really bad hydraulic once while canoeing a river I loved on a beautiful run, with great friends. Just before I blacked out I had the most peaceful so this is it moment. I was actually angry for a bit when I was resuscitated.

That's an intense experience Arb. Any recollection of the typical near death bright light/tunnel etc that is often reported? How long were you not breathing?

---

While I think it's great people take risks, I don't feel any added emotions toward climbers dying in a well known extremely dangerous situation compared to someone accidentally put into a dangerous situation.

Rock climbers for example. It's cool and very impressive to see someone scale a rock cliff but man, if they fall and die...It's sad for relatives and friends but I don't think it should be a national story. They're free climbing a rock face hundreds of feet up. Things just much higher probability of turning out ba in those situations. That's the other possible outcome of the thrill they seek. I don't think any worse of them or think they're idiots, just not that moved by the story.

I suppose for me there's a difference between first attempts and 100th attempts as well...or whether an activity advances our understanding and knowledge of something or if it's for pure thrill seeking.

Examples:

Someone falls off a 500 foot tower while doing repair work trying to make my cell phone signal better : sad

Someone jumps off same 500 foot tower thrill seeking and their parachute doesn't open: kind of funny, or at best a, "that's a bummer" response.

Someone dies exploring the underwater caves of Florida, attempting to map them out and understand them: sad

Someone swimming the underwater caves for the hell of it dies: bummer but it was a risky thing to do and all the man hours required to go back into that cave and drag your corpse out so the next divers don't have a panic attack when your dead body floats by them is wasted resources unless it's funded by the local dive club.

Sunny Bono runs into a tree and dies skiing: we've all got to go sometime!

I'm probably wrong on this topic but my suggestion would be that if you like thrill seeking, life threatening activities, stick to the ones that make corpse recovery easy like sky diving. You get your thrills but the mop up job if things go awry is easy.

Arborealus · Post by **Arborealus** » December 19, 2006, 3:07 am

Winnow wrote:
Arborealus wrote: I got pinned in a really bad hydraulic once while canoeing a river I loved on a beautiful run, with great friends. Just before I blacked out I had the most peaceful so this is it moment. I was actually angry for a bit when I was resuscitated.
That's an intense experience Arb. Any recollection of the typical near death bright light/tunnel etc that is often reported? How long were you not breathing?

---

I don't really know how long less than 5 minutes probably. It was out of bodyish until I was yanked back to consciousness puking water. I felt warm, no distress or discomfort at all just a sort of calm and the thought that it was such a good day. No tunnel, weird light almost like a fisheye lense effect I could see everything including me...but didn't see the guys kick me out of the pin. There was no distinct beginning of the experience the ending was like being ripped out of dream.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » December 19, 2006, 3:44 am

Arborealus wrote: I don't really know how long less than 5 minutes probably. It was out of bodyish until I was yanked back to consciousness puking water. I felt warm, no distress or discomfort at all just a sort of calm and the thought that it was such a good day. No tunnel, weird light almost like a fisheye lense effect I could see everything including me...but didn't see the guys kick me out of the pin. There was no distinct beginning of the experience the ending was like being ripped out of dream.

Thanks for sharing Arb. The out of body near death experience is reported so often. It makes it even more noteworthy to hear it again from another source such as yourself.

I was listening to a radio show awhile back and in an operating room where patients must be temporarily medically dead to complete a procedure, an experiment was conducted where a TV monitor was placed facing the ceiling so only a person looking down on the scene could view what was on it as a test to see if anyone reporting an out of body experience could identify the image. So far, I haven't heard any results but I though it was a good idea.

Midgen · Post by **Midgen** » December 19, 2006, 4:26 am

I believe in Alaska you have to put a huge deposit (like $10k?) before they will let you climb McKinley. Too many dodo's needing to be helicoptered off the mountain (which at that altitude is no small task.. takes a very special helicopter to get up that high).

Wulfran · Post by **Wulfran** » December 19, 2006, 7:36 pm

Arborealus wrote:The storm hit a good bit harder than anyone really predicted.

This part really bugs me: its December and everyone KNEW the storm was coming. A storm at that elevation in the summer can be nasty, never mind in late fall/early winter. Who in their right mind doesn't postpone in these circumstances?

Another thing that bugs me is if theses guys are so savvy and well equipped, where the hell are the GPS locators? The dead guy had one on his cell, OK that covers him: what about the guys still missing? I can't speak for climbers per se but I have friends who back country ski (I've gone with em a few times but I prefer the resort slopes with beer in the chalets

) and EVERYONE has a GPS locater in case of seperation and avalanches. Thats protocol and has been as long as the tech has been available.

Hey, maybe its good practice for the rescue teams for next time but it seems like an awful lot of resources being expended on some guys that should have known better and might have avoided this with some better planning/common sense.

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » December 19, 2006, 7:45 pm

Wulfran wrote: Another thing that bugs me is if theses guys are so savvy and well equipped, where the hell are the GPS locators? The dead guy had one on his cell, OK that covers him: what about the guys still missing? I can't speak for climbers per se but I have friends who back country ski (I've gone with em a few times but I prefer the resort slopes with beer in the chalets ) and EVERYONE has a GPS locater in case of seperation and avalanches. Thats protocol and has been as long as the tech has been available.

I thought I had heard that they found some shovels or a pickax at the edge of a cliff and are speculating that the two remaining climbers fell over the side of it. If that happened, they didn't have time to activate a GPS device.

Arborealus · Post by **Arborealus** » December 19, 2006, 10:15 pm

Yeah EPIRBs are cheap they should have had them, activated them and stayed in the snow cave. That was poor judgement.

Gemily · Post by **Gemily** » December 21, 2006, 3:48 pm

Lynks wrote:I don't think hundreds of thousands of dollars should be spent on the recovery of people doing dangerous things.

I agree. And it also pisses me off that these search and rescue people risk their lives going after these dumb asses.

Fairweather Pure · Post by **Fairweather Pure** » December 22, 2006, 2:09 am

I think the guy in the cave ate the others, that's why they can't find them.