One climber was killed and another was left with critical injuries after the pair fell about 200 feet while climbing on Mount Hood over the weekend, officials said Monday.
Rescue crews, composed of more than 30 people from nine all-volunteer search and rescue teams, spent more than 24 hours trying to reach the climbers, according to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. The rescuers weathered extremely challenging conditions said Christopher Van Tilburg, medical director for the search and rescue teams.
“There was high avalanche danger, bitter cold, howling wind, deep snow and steep terrain in a remote area as well as the late call out,” he said. “Every rescue mission is different and challenging, but this one just had hazards stacked on top of each other.”
The climbers, two women, were making their way up the Leuthold Couloir, a steep and narrow gully on the mountain’s west side, about 5 p.m. Sunday when both of them fell roughly 200 feet, according to the sheriff’s office.
Both climbers were hurt. The sheriff’s office didn’t say what prompted the fall or whether the climbers were roped together.
One of the climbers was able to call 911 and sent out an emergency signal from a GPS device.
The sheriff’s office set up a command post at Timberline Lodge and teams from Portland Mountain Rescue, the Hood River Crag Rats, and Mountain Wave Emergency Communications began trying to make their way toward the climbers.
Working in the dark, rescue teams attempted to reach the pair from below, traversing the upper Reid Glacier and climbing up the couloir, but were met with extremely challenging conditions, including wind gusts up to 70 mph.
“The high winds were concentrated in the couloir and were blowing heavy sheets of snow down the couloir that created dangerous avalanche risk and extreme climbing conditions,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release. “The snow was deep and heavily wind-loaded, so with every upward step, rescuers sunk to their upper thighs.”
The agency added: “All this difficult and dangerous travel was on steep terrain at night, with limited visibility due the blowing snow and dim moonlight.”
The rescue teams got within 700 feet below the climbers before being forced to turn back. A military helicopter was unable to assist with the overnight rescue attempt because of elevation and weather conditions.
By dawn on Monday, the rescue effort had grown to include teams from as far away as Corvallis and a helicopter crew from the Army National Guard.
Strong winds were still blowing over the mountain, so rescue teams attempted a different route to reach the injured climbers, climbing to the summit using a more common route on the south side of the mountain and descending on the west side to reach the climbers.
The rescuers found one of the climbers dead and the other suffering from critical injuries, officials said.
“Due to the severe avalanche hazard and poor conditions, rescuers made the tough decision to leave the deceased on the mountain, with plans to mount a recovery mission when conditions improve,” the sheriff’s office said. adding that at least two avalanches were reported on the mountain Monday.
Rescue teams were able to transport the injured climber down the couloir to the top of the Reid Glacier below, where the climber was carried in a litter to a vehicle waiting at the top of Timberline Ski Area’s Palmer chairlift.
The climber was taken to Timberline Lodge, where medics were waiting just before 7 p.m., the sheriff’s office said.
The sheriff’s office expects to publicly identify the climbers after their families are notified.
Van Tilburg said Portland Mountain Rescue and the Crag Rats are the only groups with the skills to retrieve the body of the deceased climber and they wouldn’t be able to do until conditions on the mountain improve, which he said could be “several days or several weeks.”
– Kale Williams; kwilliams@oregonian.com; 503-294-4048; @sfkale
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