2007: Searchers find no clues to vanished climbers
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Searchers came up empty Saturday as they tried to discover what happened to two mountaineers missing on Mount Hood since December.
A coordinator said they may never be found.
Search and rescue teams had hoped to find the remains of 37-year-old Brian Hall, 37, of Dallas, Texas, and Jerry "Nikko" Cooke, 36, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who vanished in a storm after making it to the summit.
Captain Chris Bernard of the Air Force Reserve's 304th Rescue Squadron, one of the outfits that sent 57 climbers up the mountain, said there were no significant finds.
Teams plan to be on the mountain again tomorrow but Russell Gubele of Mountain Wave Emergency Communications said it will be more of a training exercise than a search.
The summer sun has melted snow and ice, making for unstable conditions and falling rock on Mount Hood.
But that also gave searchers their best opportunity to peer into crevasses holding jumbled layers of snow, ice and rock. Within a month, climbers expect, snow will begin blanketing the mountain again.
A coordinator said they may never be found.
Search and rescue teams had hoped to find the remains of 37-year-old Brian Hall, 37, of Dallas, Texas, and Jerry "Nikko" Cooke, 36, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who vanished in a storm after making it to the summit.
Captain Chris Bernard of the Air Force Reserve's 304th Rescue Squadron, one of the outfits that sent 57 climbers up the mountain, said there were no significant finds.
Teams plan to be on the mountain again tomorrow but Russell Gubele of Mountain Wave Emergency Communications said it will be more of a training exercise than a search.
The summer sun has melted snow and ice, making for unstable conditions and falling rock on Mount Hood.
But that also gave searchers their best opportunity to peer into crevasses holding jumbled layers of snow, ice and rock. Within a month, climbers expect, snow will begin blanketing the mountain again.