MOUNT HOOD, Ore. – Crews say given the conditions on Tuesday, anyone who climbed up Mount Hood on Tuesday could have fallen to their death.
One person died after falling at least 700 feet from the Hogsback area Tuesday morning. Six more climbers were stranded but thanks to help of search and rescue teams, they were escorted down to Timberline Lodge by the end of the night.
Background: Climber dies after fall on Mount Hood
Crews say the rescue was daunting, time consuming, and complicated by extreme wind and icy conditions, which got worse as the day wore on.
Steve Rollins with Portland Mountain Rescue was one of the volunteers that helped bring the climbers down.
“It is really hard ice conditions due to the weather patterns we’ve had, so any kind [of fall] on the upper mountain was going to result in a pretty bad fall,” he said.
Photos: Climbers rescued on Mount Hood
Photos: Injured, stranded climbers rescued on Mt. Hood
Three climbers, two men and a woman, were with the climber who fell to his death. The two men were able to get down the mountain with the help of rescuers before a snowcat took them down to the lodge. The woman suffered an injury and needed additional assistance, according to Sgt. Brian Jensen with the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office.
“She is unable to walk. She is unable to physically move,” he said Tuesday night. “So they have put her on a sled and are roping her down which is a time consuming maneuver.”
Like the other two climbers, a snowcat picked her up just above Palmer Glacier and brought her down to the lodge just before 8 p.m.
Crews also helped another climbing party of three people who were stranded near the Hogsback area.
“They were kind of pinned down, sketched out and didn’t want to come down on their own,” said Dave Clark, a volunteer rescue leader with Portland Mountain Rescue.
But while rescue crews are happy they were able to bring six people down the mountain safely, they still think about the one they couldn’t.
“Our hearts go out to the families,” Clark said. “We never like to see this kind of an outcome.”