HOOD RIVER, Ore. — Rescue teams came up empty in an all-out search Saturday for three men missing on Mount Hood, taking advantage of a long-awaited break in the brutal weather that had hobbled their efforts all week.
About 25 hand-picked rescue mountaineers were making their way up the south side of the 11,239-foot mountain, and 30 others started up the north side, Hood River County Sheriff Joe Wampler said at a news conference. He said the team on the south side would attempt to reach the summit.
The clear, cold morning turned foul by midday, before searchers on two sides of the mountain and helicopter crews retired for the night, finding no trace of the three men.
A C-130 with infrared heat-seeking capability from the Nevada Air National Guard took to the skies for the second day over Mount Hood and was to continue around the clock with alternating crews.
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80 climbers join search
In all, about 80 climbers were to take part Saturday.
At the news conference with Wampler, the mothers of the three missing climbers choked back tears as they expressed hope their sons would be found.
"I know my son's coming down today," Lou Ann Cameron of Bryant, Ark., said of her son, Kelly James. "It's my birthday. He wouldn't miss my birthday."
Wampler said the chances of finding the climbers alive would be improved if they had held onto the "bivvy sack" sleeping bags they said they had taken along. Some climbers stash gear such as sleeping bags and backpacks to lighten their load as they head to the summit, then pick it up on the way back down.
The climbers left Dec. 7 on what was to be a two-day trip.
James, 48, called family members Sunday from a snow cave shelter to report that the party was in trouble and two members were descending for help.
The two climbers believed to have tried to descend the mountain are Brian Hall, 37, and Jerry "Nikko" Cooke, 36. James and Hall are from Dallas, Cooke from New York.
