http://www.oregonlive.com/news/orego...120.xml&coll=7
More snow, less hope on Hood
New storms bear down, searchers come up empty, and families of 3 lost climbers send up prayers
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
STUART TOMLINSON and MARK LARABEE
GOVERNMENT CAMP -- Rescue workers continued their two-pronged search Tuesday for three climbers missing on Mount Hood, with some saying their chances of survival are dwindling while others remain optimistic.
"Hope is fading by the hour," said veteran climber and rescuer Rocky Henderson of Portland Mountain Rescue. "I think there was another accident -- that they may have gotten into a gully or canyon and fallen. If they had found the south-side route, they would have come out on a road by now."
In the wake of last weeks big story on the Kim family, and another man who was lost then found by Crater Lake I have a note for the world.
It's winter here, mountains and wilderness abounds in the 98,466 sq miles that represents the state. Only 600 of those miles is the Portland area, and 2 million of the 4 million humans in the state live in that scant 600 square miles, distributing the rest of the 2 million into the remaining 97,800 square miles.
Leaving essentially a mess of wilderness out there to tempt and fool you.
We have 36 mountains (which in case you are unaware "generally refers to rises over 2,000 feet)
The altitude of mountains means that the tops exist in higher cold layers of the atmosphere. They are consequently often subject to glaciation and erosion through frost action. In other words the winter makes it a mess of arctic conditions.
In short watch out, nature's a mean master.
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