1986 Mount Hood Disaster

Last updated
1986 Mount Hood Disaster
Mount Hood, OR 9-1-13v (9726524158).jpg
Mount Hood viewed from just below Timberline
Date12–13 May 1986
Location Mount Hood (Oregon)
Organised by Oregon Episcopal School
Deaths9

The 1986 Mount Hood Disaster occurred in May 1986, when seven students and two members of staff from Oregon Episcopal School died during an excursion on Mount Hood. The students were participating in an adventure program required by the school for sophomores. The disaster is the second deadliest alpine accident in North American history, behind only an avalanche in 1981 on Mount Rainier which claimed eleven lives.

Contents

Expedition

The students were participating in Basecamp, a program run by the school following the principles of Outward Bound, and required for all tenth graders. Led by Thomas Goman, the school's chaplain, the expedition set off from Timberline Lodge, just west of the route up Mount Hood, on Monday May 12, 1986, at 3 a.m. The forecast predicted a multi-day storm, but Goman believed that the climb would be complete before the worst of the weather hit. The party consisted of 20 people: 15 students, a student's mother, Goman, one administrator, and two guides, Dee Zduniak from Outward Bound and Ralph Summers.

Student Hilary Spray and her mother Sharon turned back early in the climb because Hilary was suffering from a stomach ache. Two more students and Zduniak turned around shortly after. According to a statement written by Summers after their rescue, bad weather suddenly arrived in the two-hour period after Zduniak turned back. Summers was eventually able to convince Goman to turn back, but by then the storm arrived and conditions were deteriorating rapidly.

Because of poor visibility and disorienting conditions, the group descended off course, moving nearly sideways across the mountain. With evening approaching, Summers constructed a snow cave. The cave was not large enough to hold everyone, and the accumulating snowfall built up over the entrance, obstructing the air flow and restricting access. Summers and another student set off for help after first light on Tuesday morning, arriving at Mount Hood Meadows, two miles east of Timberline Lodge, a few hours later. The rest of the group waited at the snow cave, with three students possibly attempting to descend on their own.[ citation needed ]

Rescue

The Portland Mountain Rescue arrived at the Timberline Lodge shortly after 5 a.m. on Tuesday, May 13, alerted to potential trouble on Mount Hood involving student climbers who had not arrived back as expected. The rescuers faced difficult weather conditions, with strong winds overturning a Sno-Cat. On Wednesday morning, a team of rescuers found the bodies of the three students who were outside the snow cave. The team searched nearby for other survivors, using avalanche probes to locate a snow cave. The team was pulled from this location, and redirected after Summers went up in a helicopter to offer guidance on where he thought the survivors were located.

Later on Wednesday, Richard Harder, a master sergeant with the 304th recovery squadron, a unit of Air Force pararescuers, determined that the search teams were looking in the wrong area, marked a probable search field with a flare from a helicopter, and set up a line of rescuers to use avalanche poles to search for survivors. The snow cave was located on Wednesday evening. Helicopters rushed the victims to area hospitals, where doctors and medical staff attempted treatment. One survivor, Giles Thompson, had to have both legs amputated. [1]

Aftermath

The school commissioned an official inquest, which assigned blame primarily to Goman for failing to turn back in the face of bad weather. Settlements were offered to the families of seven students who died, and one family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in September 1986. The school commemorates the event annually in May of each year. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timberline Lodge</span> United States historic place

Timberline Lodge is a mountain lodge on the south side of Mount Hood in Clackamas County, Oregon, about 60 miles (97 km) east of Portland. Constructed from 1936 to 1938 by the Works Progress Administration, it was built and furnished by local artisans during the Great Depression. Timberline Lodge was dedicated September 28, 1937, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Hood</span> Stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc in Oregon, United States

Mount Hood is a potentially active stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the Pacific coast and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located about 50 miles (80 km) east-southeast of Portland, on the border between Clackamas and Hood River counties. In addition to being Oregon's highest mountain, it is one of the loftiest mountains in the nation based on its prominence, and it offers the only year-round lift-served skiing in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anatoli Boukreev</span> Russian mountain climber

Anatoli Nikolaevich Boukreev was a Soviet and Kazakhstani mountaineer who made ascents of 10 of the 14 eight-thousander peaks—those above 8,000 m (26,247 ft)—without supplemental oxygen. From 1989 through 1997, he made 18 successful ascents of peaks above 8000 m.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571</span> 1972 aviation accident

The Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, was a chartered flight from Montevideo, Uruguay, bound for Santiago, Chile, that crashed in the Andes mountains on 13 October 1972. The accident and subsequent survival became known as the Andes flight disaster and the Miracle of the Andes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1999 Galtür avalanche</span> Avalanche in Galtür, Austria

The Galtür avalanche occurred on 23 February 1999 in the Alpine village of Galtür, Austria. At 50 m (160 ft) high and traveling at 290 km/h (180 mph), the powder avalanche overturned cars, destroyed buildings and buried 57 people. By the time rescue crews managed to arrive, 31 people had died. It was considered the worst Alpine avalanche in 40 years. Three major weather systems originating from the Atlantic accounted for large snowfalls totaling around four meters in the area. Freeze-thaw conditions created a weak layer on top of an existing snow pack; further snow was then deposited on top. This, coupled with high wind speeds, created large snow drifts and caused roughly 170,000 tons of snow to be deposited.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timberline Lodge ski area</span> Ski area in Oregon, United States

Timberline Lodge ski area is the ski and snowboarding area of Timberline Lodge, a National Historic Landmark in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is one of a few ski areas in the United States with most of the skiable terrain below the main lodge. It is located on the south face of Mount Hood, about 60 miles (95 km) east of Portland, accessible via the Mount Hood Scenic Byway.

A Mountain Locator Unit or MLU was a radio transmitter for use by mountain climbers as an emergency locator beacon when the wearer needs rescue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1996 Mount Everest disaster</span> Death of eight climbers

The 1996 Mount Everest disaster occurred on 10–11 May 1996 when eight climbers caught in a blizzard died on Mount Everest while attempting to descend from the summit. Over the entire season, 12 people died trying to reach the summit, making it the deadliest season on Mount Everest at the time and the third deadliest after the 22 fatalities resulting from avalanches caused by the April 2015 Nepal earthquake and the 16 fatalities of the 2014 Mount Everest avalanche. The 1996 disaster received widespread publicity and raised questions about the commercialization of Everest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Hood climbing accidents</span>

Mount Hood climbing accidents are incidents related to mountain climbing or hiking on Oregon's Mount Hood. As of 2007, about 10,000 people attempt to climb the mountain each year. As of May 2002, more than 130 people are known to have died climbing Mount Hood since records have been kept. One of the worst climbing accidents occurred in 1986, when seven teenagers and two school teachers froze to death while attempting to retreat from a storm.

<i>Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon</i>

Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon is a 2008 horror film that was broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel on November 8, 2008. The film stars Carly Pope, Peter DeLuise, Ona Grauer, and Crystal Lowe. Its plot concerns a group of people who, after crashing their plane into the Himalayan Mountains, encounter the Yeti. This encounter sends them into a fight for survival. It is the 14th film in the Maneater Series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2008 K2 disaster</span> Mountaineering expedition disaster on K2 in Pakistan

The 2008 K2 disaster occurred on 1 August 2008, when 11 mountaineers from international expeditions died on K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth. Three others were seriously injured. The series of deaths, over the course of the Friday ascent and Saturday descent, was the worst single accident in the history of K2 mountaineering. Some of the specific details remain uncertain, with different plausible scenarios having been given about different climbers' timing and actions, when reported later via survivors' eyewitness accounts or via radio communications of climbers who died later in the course of events on K2 that day.

Gerard McDonnell, mountaineer and engineer, was the first Irishman to reach the summit of K2, the second-highest mountain on Earth, in August 2008. He lost his life along with 10 other mountaineers following an avalanche on the descent, in the deadliest accident in the history of K2 mountaineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2009 Buachaille Etive Mòr avalanche</span> Avalanche in Scotland

The 2009 Buachaille Etive Mòr avalanche happened on Buachaille Etive Mòr in Glen Coe in the Scottish Highlands, UK, on 24 January 2009. Three mountain climbers were killed and one sustained a serious shoulder injury. Two of the dead were from Northern Ireland and the other was from Scotland. Nine people from at least three countries in at least two parties were involved in the incident on a mountain that is well recognised by tourists to Scotland. While avalanches are not uncommon in the area, very few deaths are reported—this incident has been described as "one of the worst disasters in the Scottish mountains for decades".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2009 Schalfkogel avalanche</span>

The 2009 Schalfkogel avalanche was an avalanche which occurred in Sölden, Austria, on 2 May 2009. Six people were killed, five Czechs and one Slovak, when the disaster struck in the 3,500-metre (11,500 ft) Schalfkogel mountain range. The corpses were discovered to have been frozen upon recovery. It was the deadliest avalanche to have occurred in Austria since March 2000. Although avalanches are a regular occurrence in the region, they mainly kill individuals as opposed to entire groups.

On March 4, 2012, at least three avalanches struck the Badakhshan province of northeastern Afghanistan. One of those avalanches destroyed a small village of about 200 people. The name of the village is uncertain; some sources call it Dasty and locate it in Darzab District, and others call it Sherin Nazim and locate it in Shekay District. Two other villages were affected by the avalanche. At least 50 people were killed in the disaster.

The 2003 Connaught Creek Valley avalanche on Saturday, 1 February 2003 killed seven teenagers in the Columbia Mountains at the foot of Mount Cheops east of Revelstoke, following another avalanche which had killed seven adult skiers on 20 January 2003 on the Durrand Glacier, located in the same area and caused by a rain crust formed at the same time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 Mount Everest avalanches</span> 2015 mountaineering disaster

During the afternoon of 25 April 2015, a MW 7.8 earthquake struck Nepal and surrounding countries. Shaking from the quake triggered an avalanche from Pumori into Base Camp on Mount Everest. At least twenty-two people were killed, surpassing an avalanche that occurred in 2014 as the deadliest disaster on the mountain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1995 India cyclone</span> Category 1 North Indian tropical cyclone in 1995

The 1995 India cyclone was a tropical cyclone that struck southeastern India which later spawned a rare snowstorm in Nepal, triggering the deadliest mountain trekking incident in the country's history in November 1995. The storm originated from the monsoon trough on November 7 in the Bay of Bengal, east of India, becoming the penultimate storm of the 1995 North Indian Ocean cyclone season. Moving northwestward, the system gradually intensified while moving toward land, eventually developing an eye in the middle of the convection. Reaching peak winds of at least 120 km/h (75 mph), the India Meteorological Department (IMD) classified the system as a very severe cyclonic storm on November 8, in line with intensity estimates from the American-based Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). On November 9, the cyclone made landfall near the border of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. A typical for most November storms, the system continued to the north and dissipated over Nepal on November 11.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cairngorm Plateau disaster</span> Scottish mountaineering tragedy in 1971

The Cairngorm Plateau disaster, also known as the Feith Buidhe disaster, occurred in November 1971 when six fifteen-year-old Edinburgh school students and their two leaders were on a two-day navigational expedition in a remote area of the Cairngorms in the Scottish Highlands.

On the afternoon of 18 January 2017, a major avalanche occurred on Gran Sasso d'Italia massif, one of the mountains above Rigopiano, impacting and destroying the four-star Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola, Abruzzo. The impact killed twenty-nine people and injured eleven others, making the avalanche the deadliest in Italy since the White Friday avalanches in 1916, and the deadliest avalanche in Europe since the Galtür avalanche in 1999.

References

  1. "Doctors Remove Legs of Mount Hood Climber". NY Times. May 19, 1986. Retrieved 2018-11-05.
  2. Toutonghi, Pauls (2 November 2018). "Mount Hood's Deadliest Disaster". Outside Magazine. Retrieved 5 November 2018.

Further reading