Oregon mountain climber airlifted after falling hundreds of feet
A hiker with serious injuries was airlifted after falling hundreds of feet while climbing Mount Hood on July 2, 2022. (Clackamas County Sheriff's Office)
Climbing the snowy peaks of the Cascades in the Pacific Northwest is dangerous at any point in the year. The cliffs are steep, the ice is slippery and even minor injuries become much more serious. It's especially true for Mount Hood, an active volcano just east of Portland, Oregon, and the tallest mountain in the state.
On July 2, a 43-year-old climber from Happy Valley, Oregon, lost grip of his ice axe and plummeted about 600-700 feet to the rocks below, near an area of the mountain called the Old Chute, Clackamas County Sheriff’s Deputy John Wildhaber said in a press release.
Wildhaber said the fall occurred sometime around 6:30 a.m., local time, but rescue crews weren't able to find and reach the injured climber until about four hours later. A medic helicopter from the Oregon Army National Guard didn't arrive to airlift the man to a hospital until 1 p.m., illustrating the extraordinary effort and time required to perform a mountain rescue.
The helicopter touched down on a snowy sliver of the mountain, with not enough space to even use all its landing gear. The Hot Rocks fumarole can be seen next to the airlift site, which is a vent where sulfur and other volcanic gases spew out into the atmosphere.
These types of accidents are common on this stretch of the 11,000-foot mountain.
"This is the second accident in about a week in the same area of Mt. Hood," Wildhaber said. "On June 24, a 31-year-old woman from Portland was climbing Mt. Hood, when she fell several hundred [feet] from the summit ridge down the Old Chute, resulting in critical injuries and a helicopter evacuation."
Old Chute, the area where the climber fell, is just shy of Mount Hood's peak--at 11,240 feet. (Photo/ Oregon's Mount Hood Territory)
The Portland Mountain Rescue crew states that May and June are the most popular months of the year for climbers looking to summit Mount Hood, but they're also when calls for rescue are at their peak.
"The upper crater can turn into a maelstrom of rocks and ice once the sun warms the high cliffs. Foul weather is one of the most common factors in climbing incidents in the Cascades," Portland Mountain Rescue states on its website. "Weather can change rapidly in the mountains, and it often turns nasty on the upper mountain before harsh conditions hit tree line."
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