Reply #70: I found this comment at HuffPO, he seems to know whereof he speaks.

[achtung_circus]

Bummer. Tragedy. But I've soloed McKinley, climbed in the Andes, and climbed the route they did on Mt. Hood, and was on the Cooper Spur two weeks before they went...These supposedly expert climbers (guided up Denali, residents of Dallas and Manhattan) attempted a 'light and fast overnight' by climbing into the teeth of a very well-forecast storm. The day they started, forecasts were calling for 40mph winds and heavy rain in the valleys, 6,000-10,000 feet lower than their elevations on Hood. Coastal winds two days ago were 90mph, and recorded wind speeds on Mt. Rainier reached 114.

Mt. Hood, in blizzard conditions, is much more committing than McKinley or Mt. Rainier in good summer weather. They did a couple things that expert climbers wouldn't do:
-They did this climb in the rainiest, stormiest autumn ever recorded for the Pacific Northwest.
-The kept climbing in the face of poor weather, but they probably had worked hard to get time off, make plane reservations, etc.
-They split up, with two 'going for help.' What...they expected a troop of heroes was going to go back up Hood with them in the face of blizzard conditions!? They should have stayed together.
-They left gear, including a sleeping bag, in one of their caves. Abandon gear, when all they had to do was descend the easy, southern slopes from their cave to Timberline Lodge ski area?
-They tried to find the ski area in a whiteout. That area below the southwest gullies is a vast, white plain. If they didn't have a compass or pre-programmed GPS (and there's no mention that they did) that was hopeless in 80mph ground blizzards.
-Also, they 'bought a lot of gear at REI' prior to making their climb. If they were experienced glacial mountaineers, they wouldn't have needed to buy much. They'd aleady own it.

Unfortunatley, the other two will be found dead, probably well off the fall-line, straight-down route that leads from the summit snow cave to Timberline Meadows ski area.

This was a tragedy, but it was entirely preventable.

By: utahliberal435 on December 17, 2006 at 07:44pm
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