Just read the story

http://www.kptv.com/news/21949650/detail.html

Seems to happen every few years ... esp. with the early (sudden) winter storms. Hopefully they will be OK.

Reminds me though ... I need to practice building snow caves.

the other Pete

It is happening EVERY year! And sometimes more than once a year. There are still bodies up there that they haven't found.

If they are such experienced hikers, why are they there when this weather was predicted a week ago (at least)? Why are they calling for help? Why are they putting rescuers lives in danger to retrieve them?

Personally, I'm getting tired of these idiots. They're just bozos from the It Won't Happen To Me School of Fools.

If people insist on climbing mountains in winter, they can darned well be responsible for themselves. You go up, you get yourself down, and stop whining.

Sue

Strovink also said the climbers had not rented an emergency locator beacon which would indicate their location for searchers.

He said it costs $5 to rent a beacon.


Crimeny. Heck of a thing to cheap out on.

I wish them, and the rescuers, well. Mt. Hood is as alluring as it can be lethal. Seems every year that a few people, and their loved ones, find that out the hard way.

I had the option to rent a PLB for a few dollars a day, I wouldn't even blink. Sign me up! It's the big up-front outlay that makes me hesitate.

And the possibility of ever-changing standards threatening to making units obsolete.

One climber has been located, deceased. Still looking for the other two... sad.


http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/three_climbers_reported_missin.html

Sue, can I appeal to your better nature and ask that you don't call these climbers idiots, bozos, and fools? They went for a climb up an accessible summit adequately equipped, in a normal climbing season for that summit, they are experienced, and they are not as much endangered by adverse weather as by the possibility that they have taken a fall. If they have fallen, even if they had a PLB they might have lost it in the fall, or be incapacitated such that they couldn't activate it.

These climbers are human beings and deserve better than you've given them. My thoughts are with them and hoping for their safe return, and with their families too. And besides, I don't know any weather advisory issued a week ago that is any good in the states of Washington or Oregon. Weather forecasts are generally good for 72 hours tops, beyond that they are not very reliable.

SARSAT PLB standards do not change rapidly. There are significant international obligation entanglements that give the system considerable inertia.

Also there is a substantial investment in the private and public sectors in beacons and many people to oppose unnecessary changes. If you're forced to replace your SARSAT PLB there be a lot of unhappy airplane and boat owners, and the Navy won't like it either. Not to mention that satellites are expensive and incompatible satellites difficult to fund.

To give perspective, the SARSAT system went live in 1982 and I believe every beacon that worked then would still work until February of this year when some older frequencies were cut off: 26+ years.

There are likely to be advancements and extensions that will be desirable. But a PLB purchased today is likely to be usable, as specified when sold, for the life of the unit.

I would add that there is not yet enough real information to critique or evaluate this incident. Normal news channels, barring the exceptional in depth journalistic effort, will not provide enough data to support a rational analysis.