CNN.com has breaking news that two climbers have gone missing on Mt. Hood. The two climbers, who are described as “experienced” were due back yesterday afternoon, but failed to answer calls to a cell phone and have not reported in any other way.
To make matters worse, blizzard conditions moved in early this morning, which will hamper search and rescue operations. While the pair’s vehicle is still in the parking lot at the Timberline Lodge, authorities have not ruled out the possibility that the men may have left with other climbers, although it does seem a bit unlikely.
I’ll post updates as they become known. Search teams were being organized to begin scouring the mountain, but it’s too early to report beyond that. Keep these men and their families in your thoughts.
Update: The climbers are alive and well and making their way down the mountain. They used their cell phone to call home and let everyone know that they spend the night in a snow cave, and will be home soon. Great news!
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These idiots should have to pay, out of their own pockets, for all of the tax payers money that goes into rescuing them. I feel for their families but can not feel anything for them as they put themselves into this terrible situation.
That’s a debate that’s been going on for years, and in some states they DO have to pay for the rescue.
The theory is that if they have to pay, less people will call in, resulting in more casualties. Besides, MOST searchers are actually volunteers, which means it costs taxpayers NOTHING!!! Sure, it would be nice for us volunteers to be reimbursed or acknowledged in some way, but it does not need to be required – many do give something back after an experience like this.
Very well said, and exactly right. Usually these rescue attempts cost virtually nothing to the tax payer and the search teams are giving up their own time to help find someone in trouble.
These kinds of blanket statement about them having to pay for a rescue often come from someone who doesn’t venture off a paved path. The volunteers in these cases are a closely knit group, and most of the time they do it so that someone will be there to help them should something happen while they’re out in the backcountry.
I agree on the rescuing. The volunteer system seems to work very well. And I’m not so convinced this is totally the climbers fault. Although they could have carried a beacon. Trust me, you can’t always predict what is going to happen in mountaineering. You can plan everything out in the most detail possible, but mother nature can play a hand. I’ve learned the hard way to always plan on spending an extra day or two out there.
The thing I think is interesting about this story is that the media seems to be hooked on Mt Hood ever since the helicopter crash. Any climber so much as shows up a few hours late at the trailhead and they are making a Dateline special on it.
LOL! Good point Wade! Mt. Hood does seem to get a lot of attention ever since that famous video of the helicopter crashing hit a few years back. Any chance they can get to break out that footage is taken it seems.