 Crag Rats wearing traditional black-and-white check flannels measure snow levels, 1973 | |
| Founded | 1926 |
|---|---|
| Founder | A. L. Anderson |
| Type | search and rescue |
| Location | |
Area served | Mount Hood and Columbia River Gorge |
The Crag Rats are the oldest volunteer mountain search and rescue organization in the United States. [1] [2] [3] Based in Hood River, Oregon, the Crag Rats are an all-volunteer, nonprofit rescue agency that primarily covers Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge. [4] [1]
As a charter member of the Mountain Rescue Association, they were founded in 1926 by A.L. Anderson, [5] a lumberman from Hood River, after a search for missing seven year old on Mt. Hood. [6] Their name originates from a wife of a founding member, who stated that the men spent so much time on the crags of the mountain that they were like "crag rats". [2]
Working under the direction of local authorities like the Hood River County Sheriff's office, they regularly conduct rescue operations for those lost, stranded, or injured in the popular recreation areas surrounding the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and Mount Hood National Forest. In 2022, they responded to over 50 search and rescue incidents just through September. [7] Since the 1950s, the club has maintained Cloud Cap Inn on the mountain as a base. [8]
The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as many of those in the North Cascades, and the notable volcanoes known as the High Cascades. The small part of the range in British Columbia is referred to as the Canadian Cascades or, locally, as the Cascade Mountains. The highest peak in the range is Mount Rainier in Washington at 14,411 feet (4,392 m).
Hood River County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 23,977. The county seat is Hood River. The county was established in 1908 and is named for the Hood River, a tributary of the Columbia River. Hood River County comprises the Hood River, OR Micropolitan Statistical Area. The Hood River Valley produces apples, pears, and cherries. Situated between Mount Hood and the Columbia River in the middle of the Columbia River Gorge, Hood River County is a popular destination for outdoor enthusiasts, such as windsurfers, mountain-bikers, skiers, hikers, kayakers, and many more.
Hood River is a city and the seat of Hood River County, Oregon, United States. It is a port on the Columbia River, and is named for the nearby Hood River. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 8,313. It is the only city in Oregon where public consumption of alcohol on sidewalks or parks is totally unrestricted.
Mount Hood is an 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 mi (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.
The Columbia River Gorge is a canyon of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Up to 4,000 feet (1,200 m) deep, the canyon stretches for over eighty miles (130 km) as the river winds westward through the Cascade Range, forming the boundary between the state of Washington to the north and Oregon to the south. Extending roughly from the confluence of the Columbia with the Deschutes River in the east down to the eastern reaches of the Portland metropolitan area, the water gap furnishes the only navigable route through the Cascades and the only water connection between the Columbia Plateau and the Pacific Ocean. It is thus that the routes of Interstate 84, U.S. Route 30, Washington State Route 14, and railroad tracks on both sides run through the gorge.
Multnomah Falls is a waterfall located on Multnomah Creek in the Columbia River Gorge, east of Troutdale, between Corbett and Dodson, Oregon, United States. The waterfall is accessible from the Historic Columbia River Highway and Interstate 84. Spanning two tiers on basalt cliffs, it is the tallest waterfall in the state of Oregon at 620 ft (189 m) in height. The Multnomah Creek Bridge, built in 1914, crosses below the falls, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Sandy River is a 56-mile (90 km) tributary of the Columbia River in northwestern Oregon in the United States. The Sandy joins the Columbia about 14 miles (23 km) upstream of Portland.
The Hood River, formerly known as Dog River, is a tributary of the Columbia River in northwestern Oregon, United States. Approximately 25 miles (40 km) long from its mouth to its farthest headwaters on the East Fork, the river descends from wilderness areas in the Cascade Range on Mount Hood and flows through the agricultural Hood River Valley to join the Columbia River in the Columbia River Gorge.
The Mount Hood National Forest is a U.S. National Forest in the U.S. state of Oregon, located 62 miles (100 km) east of the city of Portland and the northern Willamette River valley. The Forest extends south from the Columbia River Gorge across more than 60 miles (97 km) of forested mountains, lakes and streams to the Olallie Scenic Area, a high lake basin under the slopes of Mount Jefferson. The Forest includes and is named after Mount Hood, a stratovolcano and the highest mountain in the state.
Larch Mountain is an extinct volcano near Portland, Oregon. The name is misleading, as no western larch can be found there. It received that name when early lumbermen sold the noble fir wood as larch. The peak can be reached between May and November on paved Larch Mountain Road, 16 mi (26 km) east of Corbett, Oregon, although the road is closed during the winter and spring months. The road leading to Larch Mountain from the Historic Columbia River Highway is 14 miles long, which closed at milepost 10 from Nov. through late May or early June due to snow.
The Salmon River is a 33.5-mile (53.9 km) river in the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Oregon that drains part of southwestern Mount Hood. The entire length of the river is a protected National Wild and Scenic River. Several portions are in protected wilderness. It is affluent to the Sandy River, a tributary of the Columbia River.
The Mark O. Hatfield Wilderness is a wilderness area located on the northern side of Mount Hood in the northwestern Cascades of the U.S. state of Oregon, near the Columbia River Gorge and within Mount Hood National Forest. Prior to Wilderness designation it was known as the Columbia Gorge Recreation Area.
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 high school students and two teachers froze to death while attempting to retreat from a storm.
In the United States, mountain rescue is handled by professional teams within some national parks and by volunteer teams elsewhere. Volunteer teams are often members of the Mountain Rescue Association (MRA).
Fifteenmile Creek is a 54-mile (87 km) long tributary of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Oregon. It drains 373 square miles (966 km2) of Hood River and Wasco counties. Arising in the Cascade Range near Mount Hood, it flows northeast then west to its confluence with the Columbia near The Dalles.
Dog Mountain rises above the north side of the Columbia River Gorge in the U.S. state of Washington. The base of the mountain is in Skamania County along Washington State Route 14, about 9 miles (14 km) east of Stevenson and 53 miles (85 km) east of Vancouver. From its base at 150 feet (46 m), it climbs steeply to an elevation of 2,948 feet (899 m).
The Cloud Cap Inn is a historic building located high on Mount Hood, Oregon, United States. It was a luxury inn for mountain climbers that included telephones as early as 1894.
Mount Defiance is a peak near the Columbia River Gorge in the US state of Oregon. It rises to an elevation of 5,010 feet (1,527 m) in the Mount Hood National Forest in Hood River County, Oregon. The northern and western flanks of the mountain are in the Mark O. Hatfield Wilderness. The route up the mountain is often considered one of the hardest climbs in the Gorge; the trail gains 5,000 feet (1,500 m) in 6 miles (9.7 km) from the Starvation Creek Trailhead.
The Eagle Creek Fire was a destructive wildfire in the Columbia River Gorge, largely in the U.S. state of Oregon, with smaller spot-fires in Washington. The fire was started on September 2, 2017, by a 15-year-old boy igniting fireworks during a burn ban. The fire burned 50,000 acres, and burned for three months, before being declared completely contained. As late as May 29, 2018, it was still found smoldering in some areas.
Christopher Van Tilburg is an American physician and author specializing in emergency, wilderness, travel, environmental, occupational, and public health medicine. He is author of 11 books on outdoor recreation, wilderness medicine, and international travel, including two memoirs on mountain rescue Mountain Rescue Doctor: Wilderness Medicine in the Extremes of Nature and Search and Rescue: A Wilderness Doctor's Life-and-Death Tales of Risk and Reward.
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