I have been following the news story about the men who are trapped on Mt. Hood (one now confirmed dead). I am confused as to what actually went wrong to get them in this situation. This was supposed to be a routine hike to the top of the mountain. None of the news stations seem to be explaining what went wrong on their trip to get them in their current situation. Could someone shed some light on this.
2006-12-18 05:09:03 · 18 answers · asked by ericcoz 1 in News & Events ➔ Current Events
I believe that they neglected to obtain an accurate weather forecast before going on the hike. They also should have left a more detailed description of their planned route and timetable.
I read the answer ahead of mine. A GPS would only have helped them find their way/where they were or the direction they should try to go. It wouldn't have helped the search parties find them. An EPIRB like is carried by boaters on the ocean would have helped them. I don't think a GPS was that critical, but it would have been a good idea.
2006-12-18 05:13:02 · answer #1 · answered by smoothie 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
actually the news specifically stated the first main problem/thing that went wrong was the weather...
none the less, the 3 experienced climbers didn't want to give up on their well planned vacation, they thought they could handle it.
from there, nothing is based on fact. therefore, no one exactly knows what went wrong. anything you do hear is opinion. nothing has been proven yet.
there are suggestions that james was injured while cook, and nikko went to go get help. of course now it is found that james has died, cook and nikko are left unaccounted for at the moment.
yet another conclusion has been drawn. the gullies as they are known are a dangerous part of mt. hood very close to where the 2 survivors were said to be hiking down in that of an emergency. (copper spur). Right off of copper spur there is a 2,5000 ft. drop off. This is wehre the 2 remaining hikers could have fallen off and ended up in the gullies. the copper spur trail has a thick coating of ice and would be difficult to manuever down. still, nothing is for sure. foot rescue continues to look for snow caves.
however, foot rescue can not go down in the gullies right now due to such a high risk of an avalanche, so air patrol will look there.
time will tell, hopefully foot rescue will eventually be able to search in the gullies once the weather adjusts the snow better. but the rescuers only have about 1 more day to search before yet another storm surfaces mt. hood.
2006-12-18 09:07:20 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The weather mostly. They did not anticipate the weather and it was not forecast to be that bad, particularly the wind which made it so incredibly cold, reduced visibility down to nothing and caused them to have to shelter. I do not know why the one was injured but it was probably in some kind of a fall. The news media is so fouled up they cannot report a story anymore, they just try to fix on images of helicopters, rumors, and anything that makes it looks as though they are reporting as a cutting edge operation. You can see that the spokesmen for police and military are reluctant to talk to the media and the people at the news conferences asked the stupidest questions. I hope that some climbing or outdoor magazine does some in depth story so that we know what happened and how to prevent it in the future. For the mainstream press they will move on after they have sucked all of the glitz out of this story and will be hanging around like vultures at some new story.
2006-12-18 05:35:47 · answer #3 · answered by Tom W 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My friend knew that Brian guy from dallas, and we were talking about this? and have but one thought... and we cant figure out an answer...
WHO THE HELL GOES UP A MOUNTAIN IN DECEMBER??
I mean....
its not rocketscience or brain surgery difficult to put 2 and 2 together.
No GPS,(which should have been taken if they even doubted themselves, htey didnt have clue what the weather was going to do, they didnt pack much survival supplies.
Rule number one when going into the wild wild wild.
Expect to have everything go wrong, get stuck in mud, lost, cold, ect...
Its just bad form to not be prepaired for life or death as a result of your own efforts. I mean... they DID know it was a mountain, and outdoors.
Seems pretty self explainitory...
They didnt think.
So sad.
2006-12-19 03:45:28 · answer #4 · answered by red_samurai_dragon 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There's nothing "routine" about climbing an 11,000-foot mountain. Yes, the men were supposed to be experts, but the conditions would have taxed even the MOST expert climber.
100 mph winds. Fresh snow. Near zero visibility.
As of now, no one knows exactly "what went wrong" though. If I had to make an educated guess... they simply got stuck near the summit when the worst of the blizzard conditions hit. And that's just a recipe for disaster.
2006-12-18 05:16:49 · answer #5 · answered by T S 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I agree with what everyone else is saying...
Primarily the bad weather (snow storm) caused these men a great deal of trouble. I've even read that it is not recommended to try to climb during these months because of the unpredictable weather changes.
Another problem these men faced was when Kelly James was injured. His arm was some how hurt, therefore they left him in the snow cave to try to find help. When doing so, it is "believed" that they may have fallen to their deaths or are burried in an avalanche and that is why they have yet to be found.
2006-12-19 02:37:31 · answer #6 · answered by sweetcakes1921 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
To me it sounded like some guys went to a dangerous mountain during the worst possible time and were eaten up by nature. That's not tragic, it's dumb. The news is again exploiting this misfortune and is trying to play on our emotions.
I have more sympathy for children being killed, raped and starved in Darfur...I don't let the media dictate what I should feel sad about for the sake of ratings. Remember the runaway bride? The fact is, people do all kinds of dumb things, the media misrepresents it and then tries to turn it into some heartwarming story for the masses to gobble up, when really it's a non-story. They add emotional music and logos to the story to make it seem dramatic. I for one, am no longer fooled.
2006-12-18 10:21:19 · answer #7 · answered by melissa 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
They forgot to check the weather report telling them a huge snowstorm was coming. Oops! Also, some people have a tendency not to want to turn back after investing so much time, money, and effort into such an expedition and often suffer the consequences.
2006-12-18 05:13:20 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
A hell of a snow storm came in, they should have scrapped the climb, this was no day hike. I don't care how experienced they were only a fool who is over confident in his own abilities would go climbing in snow country when a blizzard was expected. The problem came in when one of them got hurt and then the weather turned...though it was forcast so they should have expected it.
2006-12-18 05:14:26 · answer #9 · answered by WitchTwo 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What really happened was that 3 humans fought a battle against the cold and lost. This is the fact. You can blame the cold for everything that went wrong including chasing them to their death.
2006-12-18 05:26:54 · answer #10 · answered by Seeknostress 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋