Hi.

I know one of the people on Mt. Hood and it really saddens me to no end to see how so many can be the Monday morning armchair expert and jump to so many wild conclusions without all the facts. The use of words such as bozo, fools, Darwin awards is unwarranted, callous and smacks of the poster's ignorance of facts and truth.

And truth be told that these facts may never be known except to those who are there and may never be found to tell us what really happened. I can say this, they were experienced and prepared for the climb and like so many other mountaineers around the world, know full well the risk involved and would never ask that any one put themselves in harms way to attempt rescue.

As an experienced mountain climber myself, I know that a PLB, SPOT etc is no guarantee of rescue and I have seen first hand where climbers had such equipment that injuries have prevented them from using the equipment to signal for help.

I have lurked here for awhile and this is probably my first and last post. I apologize if I offended anyone here with my remarks.