One climber is dead and another critically injured after they fell more than 200 feet while scaling Oregon’s Mount Hood.
Rescue crews found one of the climbers dead on Monday after their initial rescue attempts were thwarted by avalanche conditions and deep snow, according to NBC News.
The first rescue attempt occurred on Sunday when the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office sent a multi-team response group to the mountain to recover the climbers. The duo fell more than 200 feet near the Leuthold Couloir area of the mountain, the agency said in a press release.
Though both were injured by the fall, one of the climbers managed to call 911 and used their Garmin inReach device to share their situation with emergency responders.
The rescue team and volunteers went to the mountain to help the climbers but faced "extremely challenging conditions”, according to the sheriff's office, including 50 to 70 mph winds.
The first climbing team managed to get to around 700 feet below the pair of climbers, but had to turn back due to the avalanche threats. The next day, the rescuers finally reached the climbers, though Mount Hood had at least two natural avalanche events that day.
One of the climbers was dead by the time rescuers arrived. The sheriff's office said it had to make "the tough decision to leave the deceased on the mountain" with plans to recover the body when conditions improved.
The surviving climber was carried out on foot before being transferred to a snowcat vehicle, as conditions were too dangerous to bring in a helicopter to evacuate the individual.
The rescue concluded around 7pm on Monday when the surviving climber was taken to the hospital, where they are in critical condition.
According to officials, 32 people were involved in the rescue operation.
Mt Hood is no stranger to sometimes deadly accidents. In 2018, another climber died after falling more than 700 feet on the mountain. In 2002, three climbers died and four others were injured after falling into a crevasse, and a snowboarder tumbled more than 2,000 feet to his death after losing control on a turn.
Mt Hood has yearly and frequent avalanche activity, and the US Department of Agriculture warns hikers and climbers that it is their responsibility to research conditions before attempting to traverse the mountain.
Neither of the climbers has been identified as of this publishing.
