COOPER SPUR, Ore. (AP) - Rescue teams headed up the flanks of treacherous Mount Hood on Monday to search for three climbers reported missing in heavy snow, but were ordered off the mountain when conditions became too dangerous.

There was no indication of the fate of the climbers, two Texans and a New Yorker who were scaling the mountain's difficult north face but did not meet friends at Timberline Lodge on the south side as they had been scheduled to do on Friday or Saturday.

Saying they planned to resume the search Tuesday, members of the seven three-member rescue teams described ugly weather, with snow and visibility at less than 5 feet, and the fear of falling into crevasses.

"We're dealing with gusts of 85 miles an hour that were knocking us back," said Tom Scully of the Hood River mountain rescue unit known as the Crag Rats.

"They're going to regroup, wait for a break in the weather, and then go back up on the mountain," said Deputy Marc Smith of the Hood River County Sheriff's Office.

Smith said teams were well equipped and experienced but did not get past the 8,500-foot level of the 11,239-foot peak.

Meteorologist were predicting up to 18 inches of snow on the mountain over the next two days.

One climber made a cell phone call from a snow cave the three were in atop Eliot Glacier just below the summit on Sunday. The other two apparently left the cave on Saturday to seek help.

The trio left their car on Wednesday to climb Oregon's tallest peak, and had planned to spend two nights on the mountain.

Authorities were unable to re-establish cell phone contact with the climber who called. They tried again Monday but got only voice mail, Smith said.

None of the three had climbed the mountain before. About 10,000 people a year start for the summit, and generally 20-25 have to be rescued.

"From the conversation it left us very concerned for the person's welfare," Hood River County Chief Deputy Jerry Brown said.

The climbers are Kelly James, 48, who called from the cave, and Brian Hall, 37, both of Dallas, Texas; and Jerry "Nikko" Cooke, 36, of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Steve Rollins, a rescue leader with Portland Mountain Rescue, which sent two teams up the south side of Mount Hood, said the route the climbers took has slopes of 50 or 60 degrees with occasional sheer walls of vertical ice.

"And there is more than 2,000 feet of that terrain," he said.

"We don't know if they made the summit or not," Rollins said.

Rollins said the three climbers appear to have made a "fast and light" attempt on the peak, taking minimal gear in hopes of getting up and down the mountain quickly.

That technique can lessen the risk to climbers because they are on a mountain for a briefer time, Rollins said, but "if something goes wrong, you don't have a lot of gear to fall back on."

Rollins said the weather created deadly conditions.

There is "very hard ice, coupled with very high winds," he said. "You have a lot of snow on very hard ice. There is no easy way off the mountain."

He said another search and rescue team, the Hood River Crag Rats, would also search the north face.

On the south side of the mountain, Clackamas County sheriff's department was at Timberline lodge. Spokesman Jim Strovink hoped that after leaving their companion, the two other climbers also found refuge.

"The one good thing is that these climbers are very well-skilled climbers," Strovink said. "They had purchased a great deal of equipment at REI before going up to Mount Hood."

Brown said his office had contacted two of the families, who said their relatives were experienced climbers.

Rescuers had hoped to begin searching Sunday night but weather made it impossible. The Oregon Air National Guard had a helicopter on standby to use if weather improves.

It was the second time in less than a month that people caught in snowy, isolated areas of Oregon were reported missing after leaving available shelter.

In November, James Kim of San Francisco, his wife and two small daughters were stranded in their car in the mountains of southern Oregon. The wife and children were rescued, but James Kim, 35, died of hypothermia after he left the car to seek help.

Lou Ann Cameron of Bryant, Ark., said in a telephone interview Monday that her son Kelly James is one of the climbers. She said James called his own son Jason from the snow cave Sunday afternoon. Cameron said her grandson told her the other two men had gone back down the mountain to seek help.

Cameron said Jason later said he "didn't sound good."

"I'm just scared he was hurt, and the other guys went to get help," Cameron said.

James, 48, is a professional landscaper who lives in Dallas with his wife, Karen, and four children.

Cameron described her son as an avid climber who scaled Mount McKinley, the Andes Mountains in South America and peaks in Europe.

Most people who get in trouble on the mountain head up the south side from Timberline Lodge, where the path to the summit looks deceptively easy.

They often attempt the climb in shorts and T-shirts and can get caught in sudden storms and whiteouts that move in with little warning.

The three left a note at a Forest Service station south of Hood River detailing their plans, said Doug Jones, a permit specialist with the Mount Hood National Forest.

He said the note detailed plans to take the route through the canyons on the north face, which would take the party up the right side of Eliot Glacier.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)