Then it is I who am sorry, Sue.

I hope you never have a friend, acquaintance or member of your family who dies in the woods - god forbid on some lonely mountain slope - and then encounters a person in a forum so callous as to call them an 'idiot, bozo or fool' for a presumption that they were 'ill equipped.' I can think of a hundred scenarios that might have happened to these climbers, and not half of them would involve their being able to activate a PLB.

And this may interest you, the climbers in question were not carrying Mountain Locator Units (MLUs), a form of distress signalling device specific to Mt Hood - the MLU broadcasts a signal at 168.54 MHz, and local responders can attempt to track a climber's whereabouts when they believe a party is in distress. Yes, it would be good if the climbers had rented an MLU for this ascent, but there is no guarantees that SAR could capture a signal even if they did - and if only one MLU were rented, it might have also only signalled where the deceased climber ended up. I agree, it seems a worthwhile investment, and I can't explain why they didn't make it, but the plain fact is they didn't, and SAR, the climbers families and friends need to continue on and make their best of the situation.

We're all bozos on this bus, Sue.