ONE CLIMBER FOUND DEAD

Oregon National Guard Captain Mike Braibish announced today that one of the three mountain climbers who went missing 7 days ago was found dead in a snow cave on Mount Hood.

Around noon today a CH-47 Chinook helicopter lifted off with pararescue team members, being flown by pilots who flew in Afghanistan and Iraq. Rescuers have been searching the mountain under extremely hazardous conditions since one of the hikers made a distress call to a family member on December 10th. Temperatures have dipped down to 18 degrees below zero near the 11,239-foot summit during the night. The search today focused on an area where a cell phone tower had picked up a signal from the hikers cell phone which is located about 300’ below the mountain summit. A search of one snow cave turned up clothing and other personal effects but none of the hikers. A short time later at a second snow cave searchers discovered the body of one of the three hikers.

The three families have been notified of the discovery and are together at this time. Captain Braibish said during the brief press conference that they would not speculate on the condition of the remaining two hikers. “We remain optimistic, we remain hopeful for the remaining two hikers.”