Another amazing rescue (helicopter rescue on Mt Hood)

[berkeman]

Not quite the Thai cave rescue, but the skill of this Chinook pilot is amazing, being able to "land" the tail of his helicopter on the side of frozen Mt. Hood in Oregon so that rescuers could evacuate a climber who needed help (in several ways). We have some amazing folks working in rescue capacities, all over the world. Hats off to their skill and training.

https://www.kgw.com/video/news/local/mount-hood-summit-rescue/283-8188870

 

[jedishrfu]

There’s a YouTube channel called the History Guy where he detailed a few daring rescues during WW2.

One was the first helicopter rescue of some airmen who bailed out in Japanese held territory.



And another was a sargeant and an injured nurse from an aboriginal tribe.

 

[Mark44]

Pretty amazing flying skills. They can't land like this if the terrain is much steeper -- they risk breaking off the rotor blades.

I've been up Mt. Hood, but the location in the clip didn't look familiar. I wasn't able to find any details, either from the link or from a quick net search.

I'm not sure why they didn't just climb down -- were some of them injured? Mt. Hood is fairly well-known for rock falls. In any case, because Mt. Hood is so close to a large city (Portland, OR), a lot more people go up than really should, due to lack of climbing skills. People die on that mountain with some regularity.

 

[berkeman]

I'm not sure why they didn't just climb down

The headlines read that the climber was suicidal, but I didn't read into the articles yet. If he was uncooperative, it may have been too dangerous to just try to climb down with him. I sure wouldn't trust him on my line or behind me... Glad they are all okay.

 

[Tom.G]

Here is a close match to the Mount Hood image with a wider view. Maybe someone can verify/locate the area.

https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/mt-hood-gm508061970-85037525

 

[Janus]

Here's an article on the rescue. It was said that he was found on the summit plateau. There is also a labeled image of the area.
https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-...f/2018/07/summit_rescue_underway_for_inj.html

Here's a map of Mt Hood with that area roughly marked out by the black rectangle.

 

[Mark44]

@Janus, the outlined area in the image you posted is pretty much the route another guy and I did back about 30 years ago. In the upper half of the rectangle is the Hogback leading up to the steepest part, called ominously the Pearly Gates. At the right edge in the upper half of the rectangle is Steel Cliff from which rocks peel off when the weather gets warm. When I climbed the peak, we started at around 12:30am. It was starting to get light when we were on the Hogback, with a cloud obscuring the summit. You could hear rocks whizzing down from the Steel Cliff. We were wearing helmets, so I figured unless a fairly large rock with our names on it happened to get us, we'd be OK.
It was clear at the top, with views south to Mt. Jefferson and beyond, and to the volcanoes north in Washington and the Olympics. After a short break at the summet we headed back down, glad to be done as the day grew warmer (with greater rockfall danger).

 

[jedishrfu]

Yikes, that sounds pretty harrowing!

I don’t think I’d go if I’d known about falling rocks.