MOUNT HOOD, Ore. – A National Guard C-130 circled Mount Hood on Friday in search of three missing mountaineers, but struck out, its commander said.
Rescue workers defeated by three storms this week hoped for a break in the weather on Saturday and were planning what one called a major push by climbing teams up the mountain’s upper elevations.
They hoped the C-130 flights would give them information about where to search on the 11,239-foot mountain, which authorities closed to everyone except for search crews on Saturday to eliminate possible false clues from tracks or cell phones.
The C-130 Hercules, a troops and equipment transport workhorse, is equipped with infrared imaging devices. But snow and clouds prevented it from gathering any thermal hits, and the equipment also iced up, said Col. Jon Proehl, commander of the 152nd Airlift Wing of the Nevada Air National Guard, which provided the plane.
The plane made three passes, one at 8,000 feet, the next at 10,000 feet and the last, over the top of the volcanic summit, at 12,500 feet.
Proehl said two C-130s would be on standby for more flights today from their base at Reno, Nev.
They were hoping to find a hint of two Texans and a New Yorker missing since one called family members on Sunday to report the party was in trouble and two members were descending for help.
The caller, Kelly James, 48, was in a snow cave when last heard from, his family said.
Mountaineering experts said that to survive, the climbers had to have dug good shelters.
Proehl said the C-130’s equipment wouldn’t have detected body heat from a snow cave in any case.
But the plane’s crew spotted no visible sign of the climbers, such as a piece of clothing secured outside a snow cave – and couldn’t see anything on the east side of the mountain, Proehl said.
Two climbers believed to have tried to descend the mountain are Brian Hall, 37, and Jerry “Nikko” Cooke, 36. James and Hall are from Dallas, Cooke from New York.
James didn’t tell family members the exact nature of the difficulty the party was in.
The last clue to the climbers’ whereabouts was a cell phone signal returned from James’ cell phone on Tuesday.
After nearly a week of storms capped by one that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of customers below the mountain, search and rescue teams were pinning their hopes on the C-130 and more favorable weather today, said Sgt. Gerry Tiffany of the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office.
“This is going to be probably an assault from all directions – south side, north side and helicopter,” said Capt. Christopher Bernard of the Air Force Reserve’s 304th Rescue Squadron, which is helping in the search.
Steve Rollins of Portland Mountain Rescue, one of the volunteer groups providing the climbers for rescue efforts, said that after the storms and temperatures changes the snow on the mountain will be unstable – and the danger of avalanches great.
On Friday at a news conference, Bernard produced a handwritten note that said the climbers took food and such gear as fuel, bivvy sacks, a shovel and ropes, all of which could be helpful as the three hunkered down against the storms.
On Friday morning, two wives and a sister of the climbers appeared on morning news shows.
“They’re not quitters,” said James’ wife, Karen, as she locked hands in a single grip with climber Brian Hall’s sister, Angela, and Cooke’s wife, Michaela.
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