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September 11, 2007
By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer
Search teams scoured the upper
reaches of Mount Hood on Saturday but failed to come across any
sign of two missing climbers.
There was a brief moment of hope
when one climber spotted the color yellow in the shadows of a
deep crevasse.
That individual lowered himself
inside the fracture atop the Newton-Clark glacier. The other 61
searchers then waited to hear if he had found a piece of
equipment or clothing belonging to either Jerry “Nikko” Cooke,
37, or Brian Hall, 36.
But the yellow item turned out to
be a piece of latex from a broken balloon. No sign of either man
was found on or around the headwalls of Newton-Clark and Eliot
glaciers, located respectively on the eastern and northeastern
slopes.
On Friday, pararescuemen, also
known as PJs, from the 304th Air Rescue and Recovery
Squadron deployed into the two areas. They spent a cold night at
the 9,000-foot elevation awaiting the arrival of other
high-angle search teams in the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 8.
Cooke, who lived in New York, and
Hall, a Texan, vanished during a severe winter storm last
December. The body of their friend, Kelly James, 48, was
recovered from a snow cave at the 11,000-foot elevation several
days after they were all reported missing. An autopsy report
determined that he had died from hypothermia.
In a last call home via a cell
phone on Dec. 10, James reported that he had been injured and
the other men had left him behind while they sought help.
“In a televised appearance, Jerry
Cooke’s mother asked the mountain to give up her son. But I
guess Mount Hood’s still not ready to respond to her plea,” said
Hood River County Chief Deputy Jerry Brown.
He notified the two families on
Monday that major search efforts would be discontinued. He also
reassured them that any unusual sightings on the mountain would
be investigated. Sheriff Joe Wampler and Brown believe that Hall
and Cooke fell — or where blown — off the icy cliffs of the
mountain while attempting a rapid descent.
Brown said the Crag Rats, a local
mountaineering team, and hundreds of other volunteers stepped
forward to look for the missing men last winter — and twice this
summer. He said these individuals willingly put themselves in
peril to bring Cooke and Hall off the mountain. But that mission
could not be fulfilled since there has been no clue about their
whereabouts.
“I think these families understand
that we did the best we could to provide them with closure. But
it still must be heart-wrenching,” he said.
To date, Hood River County has
spent almost $37,000 on the search for James, Cooke and Hall.
The three men set off on Dec. 8 from the Tilly Jane Warming Hut
for a quick trip to the summit along Cooper Spur Ridge. They
left sleeping bags, stoves and other gear behind that Brown
believes might have saved their lives.
He said when the trio set out on
the morning of Dec. 8, the sun was shining and the skies were
clear. But heavy snowfall and blasting winds had moved in by
that afternoon and the temperature dropped dramatically.
“If they had the proper equipment
they could have all stayed inside the snow cave. But, because
they couldn’t get Kelly James warm, they had to go for help and
then it became a life and death situation,” said Brown.
He said anyone hiking or climbing
on Mount Hood should carry supplies for an emergency, and be
prepared to spend the night unexpectedly in case something
happens.
Brown said there are four men who
have now disappeared after setting out for an adventure on the
mountain. He hopes the Sheriff’s Office can one day solve the
cases involving not only Cooke and Hall but Kenneth Budlong, 45,
and Raoly Orsi, 24.
Budlong, a Nike executive, vanished
in a blizzard while climbing on the northwest side of the
mountain in September 1995. Orsi, on a horticulture exchange
from Hungary, disappeared while on a day hike in 2001 above the
Tilly Jane campground.
According to Brown, the common
belief among searchers is that all four missing men ended up in
a crevice or buried by a rock slide.
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