FALL ON SNOW

Oregon, Mt. Hood

On August 8, two Hood River climbers were found dead near the summit of Mt. Hood by searchers who carefully crossed snow and ice made treacherous by the heat. The two men were spotted about 1000 feet below the summit on the northwest face of the mountain. Searchers Darv Lloyd of Troutlake, Washington, and Wayne Steinert of White Salmon, Washington, discovered the missing climbers after they had climbed to the summit via the Sunshine route.

The bodies of Stewart Picking (20), a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Dan Owen (21) who had a Forest Service summer job, were reached by a volunteer climbing party at 10:30 a.m. The body of one of the men was dangling by a rope over a vertical crevice in the northeast face of the mountain. The other man was nearby in the snow. The two men had been roped while climbing.

Searchers said it appeared from damage to the face of the mountain and debris near the bodies that the men had fallen about 400 feet. They also reported that the climbing conditions on the mountain were not good due to the long spell of hot weather. The details of how these experienced young climbers, who were members of the Alpinees Rescue Group, fell are not known. (Source: The Oregonian and Richard Pooley)