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Three Dead, Many Injured on Mount Hood After Nine Climbers Fall and an Air Force
Helicopter Crashes -
PMR Coordinates Massive Rescue Effort
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Thursday, May 30, 2002
(Updated Saturday, Aug 17, 2002)
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Click here for photos
PMR/MRA Special Statement.
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Portland Mountain Rescue joined and then coordinated a massive rescue effort on
Oregon's Mount Hood on May 30 after nine climbers fell into the Bergschrund
crevasse and a helicopter crashed during the subsequent rescue mission.
The nine climbers were swept into a 50-foot wide and 20-foot deep crevasse, known
as the Bergschrund, early in the morning. Three of the victims were killed
and four more were critically injured.
At 1:52 PM, in the midst of the rescue mission, a Pave Hawk helicopter from the
304th Rescue Squadron of the Air Force Reserve Command's 939th Rescue Wing crashed
while attempting to airlift one of the critically injured climbers. The
chopper lost lift, dipped to the Southwest, impacted nose first into the mountain
and rolled eight times down into the mountain's crater. The accident injured
the five crewmembers on board at the time - one seriously - but, amazingly, no one
was killed. The cause of the helicopter accident is still under investigation.
Many believe that the strong skills of the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) pilot
saved the many rescuers standing directly below the helicopter, as he skillfully
flew the Pave Hawk down and away from the crevasse. During the chopper's
barrel rolls into the crater, the pilot and co-pilot remained strapped in and
basically uninjured. However, the helicopter ejected and rolled over at least
two crewmembers, injuring them but miraculously not killing them. The soft snow
no doubt cushioned the men as the massive aircraft moved over them.
Two local television station helicopters captured the horrific incident live and
the footage was broadcast worldwide for many days. Multiple satellite TV
trucks assembled in the Timberline Lodge parking lot at Mount Hood and several
victims and rescuers were interviewed in the days following May 30th. PMR's
Steve Rollins, the rescue leader that day, granted countless interviews and
Rollins and PMR's Matt Weaver appeared on ABC News Nightline the day after the
tragedy. National magazines, such as National Geographic Adventure, Climbing
and People, featured stories on the incident, including PMR photos from the scene.
The climbing accident happened just before 9:00 AM, when snow conditions on the
upper portion of 11,239-foot mountain were still firm and relatively icy. The
exact cause of the fall may never be known, but it appears that a member of a
4-person climbing party fell during their descent somewhere near the Pearly Gates
(about 11,000 feet) and began sliding rapidly down the mountain. All four
climbers in the rope team were pulled down and began rapidly sliding toward two
other climbing parties.
The four people knocked a two-person party off their feet and the six person mass
struck the last person in an ascending 3-person rope team. Ultimately, all
nine people from the three rope teams were swept into the Bergschrund crevasse at
an elevation of 10,700 feet. Three of the climbers - two from the first group
and one from the second group - sustained fatal injuries. Four more were
critically injured and two others were relatively unhurt.
At 8:58 am, a nearby climber, who happened to be a local firefighter and the
father of one of the uninjured victims, made a 9-1-1 call to the Clackamas County
Sheriff. The Sheriff immediately called in PMR, as well as American Medical
Response (AMR) and the military. Helicopters from the Air Force Reserve
Command's 304th Rescue Squadron and the Oregon National Guard's 1042nd Air Ambulance
Unit responded to the mountain and participated in the multiple airlifts.
Just after the accident, several nearby climbers helped to haul the surviving
victims out of the icy crevasse. Fortunately, several of the impromptu
rescuers were firefighters or doctors, so the injured received excellent initial
care prior to the arrival of mountain rescue professionals.
Five members of the AMR Reach and Treat (RAT) team were the first organized team
on scene and began administering medical care to the injured climbers. A
member of the Mount Hood Pro Ski Patrol joined the rescue shortly
thereafter. At 1:15 PM, a 5-person "hasty" team from Portland
Mountain Rescue reached the accident site, just after the Oregon National Guard
air lifted the most critically injured survivor. The PMR team stationed
two rescuers at the bottom of the Hogsback with one of the critically injured
victims and three at the edge of the Bergschrund with the remaining
patients. Amazingly, the climber at the bottom of the Hogsback helped to
extricate other victims from the crevasse before descending 300 vertical feet
and succumbing to shock from his injuries.
About 1:30 PM, the Oregon National Guard evacuated a second victim from the edge
of the crevasse. About 20 minutes later, the Air Force Reserve Command's
Pave Hawk helicopter flew in to air lift the third critical patient, but disaster
struck. Fortunately, just before the helicopter began to lose altitude, an
Air Force crewman cut the winch cable attached to the rescue litter, avoiding
injury to the rescuers and further injury to the victim as the helicopter went down.
Immediately following the crash, PMR's Steve Rollins took control of the on scene
incident command and quickly brought order to a chaotic situation. PMR
rescuers, AMR RAT team paramedics and several others assessed the injured helicopter
crewmembers. After stabilizing the five new victims, the rescuers went back
to work on preparing the two remaining critically injured climbers for helicopter
evacuation.
At 3:25 PM, with the first Pave Hawk unavailable, an Oregon National Guard helicopter
air lifted the injured climber at the bottom of the Hogsback. A short time
later, another National Guard chopper extricated the final patient, a Portland-area
firefighter, from the edge of the Bergschrund.
Though one of the injured Air Force reservists was skied off the mountain, the
most seriously injured pararescue jumper (PJ) required an airlift. Around
4:00 PM, a second AFRC Pave Hawk landed its wheels on the bottom portion of the
Hogsback to evacuate the PJ. PMR and AMR rescue workers hot loaded the patient
directly into the side of the helicopter and the aircraft flew off without incident.
By 4:30 PM, all survivors had been evacuated or descended from the mountain, so
the PMR team, bolstered by the arrival of 13 more rescuers, began recovery efforts
on the three deceased climbers still inside the Bergschrund. PMR specializes
in technical rescues, such as crevasse extraction, and two of the three victims
were brought off the mountain late that evening. Darkness prevented the
removal of the third fatally injured climber until the following day, so the highly
trained 304th Rescue Squadron performed that recovery the following day.
USDA Forest Service officials closed the upper portion of Mount Hood for a week
in order to investigate the crash scene and allow the removal of the Pave Hawk
wreckage. About a week after the crash, the Air Force Reserve Command
brought in a dual rotor Chinook helicopter from Pendleton, Oregon to air lift the
Pave Hawk from the mountain crater. The Chinook can easily operate at
altitudes well above Mount Hood's 11,239-foot summit.
This was one of the worst climbing accidents and one of the largest rescue efforts
in the history of the peak. It was also the first time a helicopter has
crashed during a mission there.
Mount Hood, Oregon's tallest peak, is the second most climbed mountain in the world,
next to Japan's Mount Fuji. An estimated 10,000 people per year register to
scale the peak (though some do climb without registering). Unfortunately,
Mount Hood does have a history of deaths and injuries, with over 100 killed on its
slopes in the past 100 years. The peak is accessible from a short 90 minute
drive from Portland and many novice climbers attempt climbs during the May and June
"busy season". Though most of the climbers involved on May 30th were
veteran climbers, lack of experience, along with other factors like improper training
and poor equipment are common causes of mountaineering accidents.
Mount Hood has many crevassed glaciers and can be quite hazardous, despite the
high volume of successful climbs each year.
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