Rescue effort ends for pair missing on Mt. Hood

HOOD RIVER, Ore. -- With yet another snowstorm barreling in, search teams gave up any hope of finding two missing climbers alive on wind-whipped Mount Hood and abandoned the rescue effort yesterday after nine days.

"We've done everything we can at this point," said the Hood River County sheriff, Joe Wampler, choking back tears after returning from one last, fruitless flyover of the 11,239-foot peak.

As the weather permits, officials will now look for the bodies of Brian Hall and Jerry "Nikko" Cooke, he said.

Some of the climbers' relatives had wanted the search called off, though not all, Wampler said, adding that he did not want to imperil search teams in foul weather.

"This time of year, Mount Hood is a dangerous place to be," he said at a news conference.

The men's families had no immediate comment.

Three climbers in all were reported missing on Mount Hood on Dec. 11. One of them, a 48-year-old Dallas landscape architect, Kelly James, was found dead in a snow cave on Sunday.

Volunteers continued scouring the mountains for signs of James's climbing partners, Hall, a 37-year-old personal trainer from Dallas, and Cooke, a 36-year-old lawyer from New York City.

But climbing gear found on the peak suggested that the two may have been swept to their deaths over a precipice or buried in an avalanche.

The sheriff's announcement ended a dramatic search that began Dec. 11 on the rocky, snow-covered flanks of Oregon's tallest mountain and included, at its height, scores of volunteers, sheriff's deputies, and National Guard members on foot and in helicopters and a plane.

The three men had set out Dec. 8 on what was supposed to be a two-day climb to the peak and then back down.

On Dec. 10, however, James called his family via a cellular phone to say that the party was in trouble, and that his two companions had gone downhill for help.

Authorities said they suspected that James may have suffered a dislocated shoulder, perhaps in a fall.

After James's body was discovered, search teams held out hope that Hall and Cooke had dug a cave in the snow and were awaiting rescue, as climbers are trained to do.

In one last-ditch effort, the sheriff piloted a Piper Cub over the mountain yesterday, looking into a report by snowshoers of a yellow tent in a snow field. The sheriff said it turned out to be a rock.

"Right now things are moving in from the west," he said of the snowstorm. "That window has shut on us."

Before the sheriff spoke, the search had been scaled back dramatically. Volunteers had packed up and had returned to their regular jobs. "I feel good about what I did. I wanted to do what I could for the family," Wampler said. "You start something you want to finish it."