PORTLAND, Ore. – Searchers looking for the bodies of two Mount Hood climbers found a stash of equipment Saturday they said confirms the climbers’ plans to make a rapid ascent to the summit.
In December, searchers said they believed the climbers had “gone light,” leaving behind equipment so they could climb faster and returning to it on the way back.
Saturday morning, searchers found a pack, maps, a sleeping bag and other gear in an A-frame shelter at about 5,500 feet.
The equipment was “hidden back in a cubbyhole underneath some plywood sheets,” said search spokesman Devon Wells, a fire officer and member of the Crag Rats mountain rescue organization.
Three climbers died after they made it to the top of Mount Hood at 11,239 feet.
The body of Kelly James, 48, of Dallas, was airlifted from a snow cave near the summit. The bodies of Brian Hall, 37, also from Dallas, and Jerry “Nikko” Cooke, 36, of New York City were not found.
It’s believed they went to get help for James after the three reached the summit on Dec. 8 and something went wrong.
James died of hypothermia as a winter storm settled on the mountain, thwarting search and rescue teams for days.
One theory is that Hall and Cooke fell or were swept by wind over a ledge onto a glacier, but searchers say there are other possibilities.
Explorer Scouts training in mountain rescue work discovered the equipment, Wells said.
He said the Tilly Jane campground had opened only within the last month.
Sheriff’s deputies were examining the gear found Saturday for clues to what happened to the party, said Russell Gubele, who was coordinating communications for a dozen search teams.
“We knew it was out there,” Gubele said. “That was one of the goals for this weekend.”
Wells said a list of gear provided by relatives of the climbers and a prescription bottle with Hall’s name made the identification positive.
“That was a great find,” he said. “This find actually gives us a good knowledge that they were going according to their plan” to get up and down the mountain in a day.
This weekend, the search strategy was to look at lower levels on the chance that Hall and Cooke got down that far, and then to return to the mountain in September as part of an Oregon mountain rescue training session to examine the Eliot Glacier stretching thousands of feet above.
Wells said climbers could return to the mountain Sunday, but only if they found solid evidence that they were on the way to recovering the bodies. Rainstorms were in the forecast.
On Saturday, he said, a few teams of climbers would attempt to get high enough to examine the glacier, where attention was focused in December.
But, Wells said, wind and fog impeded the climbers, and it was uncertain how far they could get.
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