Wednesday, Dec. 6: Three climbers leave their car at the Tilly Jane trail head near the Cooper Spur ski area to climb Mount Hood. Kelly James, 48, and Brian Hall, 37, both of Dallas, Texas; and Jerry "Nikko" Cooke, 36, of Brooklyn, N.Y., all experienced climbers, plan to spend at least two nights en route and meet friends at Timberline Lodge.
Thursday, Dec. 7: Climbers ascend Mount Hood, primarily using the Cooper Spur route but going over Eliot Glacier, too.
Friday, Dec. 8: Climbers take the north face route near Cooper Spur.
Saturday, Dec. 9: After summiting, Hall and Cooke leave James, who apparently was injured, in a snow cave and go for help.
Sunday, Dec. 10: Friends notify Hood River County sheriff's deputies that the climbers are missing. A limited search is launched. At 3:45 p.m., James calls his family on his cell phone from just below the summit near Eliot Glacier.
Monday, Dec. 11: Searchers track a ping from a cell phone at 10,300 feet, transmitted about 4:20 a.m., helping them narrow James' location. Rescue teams are turned back by weather at 8,500 feet.
Tuesday, Dec. 12: The last ping from the cell phone arrives about 1 a.m. Roughly 40 searchers hit the mountain, and a Black Hawk helicopter joins the search. Weather stops climbers on the north face at 7,200 feet and the helicopter at 6,000 feet. Reports of snowshoe tracks yield no clues.
Wednesday, Dec. 13: Weather keeps searchers at the tree line. Unmanned drones are brought in, to no avail.
Thursday, Dec. 14: Two drones are launched with negligible results, and the weather again limits searchers to the tree line and lower.
Friday, Dec. 15: Winter storms stymie any climbing, and teams hunker down at Timberline, Cloud Cap and a base in Portland for a full push Saturday.
Saturday, Dec. 16: Expert climbers -- 30 on the south face, 40 on the north face -- head up the mountain before daybreak. Attempts to build a base camp at 9,000 feet are scrapped by midday bad weather. Two teams reach 10,000 feet or higher but are turned back by wind. Helicopters circle, one sighting what the crew thought was two people on the north face. The report turned out not to be true. A C-130 military aircraft circled at higher altitudes and continued overnight employing heat-sensing infrared. All teams are called off by midafternoon.
Sunday, Dec. 17: Searchers find the body of one of the lost climbers in the afternoon. The day, clear and sunny, begins with hope among rescue teams. But just after noon, they discover a snow cave in the area where they believe James made a distress call with his cell phone. There was equipment inside and footprints outside. Searchers later discover a second snow cave nearby with a body inside. Searchers said they remain hopeful of finding the other two climbers alive.
Monday, Dec. 18: We have learned that searchers recovered the body of Mr. James. The Sheriff also announced that he believes the other two climbers, Mr. Hall and Mr. Cook, may have fallen during their attempted descent.
Wednesday, Dec. 20: The Sheriff stated that the search has been vastly curtailed. However, he seems personally invested, and said he would continue the search alone if needed.
I did not know any of the climbers personally, but as many others do, I feel a strong connection to them. It could have been any of us on that mountain.
I compiled about 155 images that I found on this forum, on the news sites, webcams and from various videos that I watched on this sad tragedy. The song playing is called "Journey's End" by Jonathon Martin Gordon, Scott P. Schreer. (This was my first try doing this)
You can watch this online or download this file from link below (takes a while to load)
Click on VIEW size, and select 640 for best view :
http://media.putfile.com/Mount-Hood-December-2006
** The earlier slideshow link I posted does not seem to work now. But the above link (found on PUTFILE.com) will work, it just takes a while to load**
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Parents
Parents
Parents refers to a larger category under which an object falls. For example, theAconcagua mountain page has the 'Aconcagua Group' and the 'Seven Summits' asparents and is a parent itself to many routes, photos, and Trip Reports.
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