NTL Geographic TV-Nightmare on Mt Hood

[Maddy]

Saw this great show on TV last evening and it will be on again at 6pm tonight. I think it's worth recording. I didn't look at the months schedule but it may be featured again this week.
Critical Situation, Nightmare on MT Hood
It's the one which involved the rescue chopper which crashed to the ground and does 7 complete flips and no one is injured. Unfortunately some of the climbers were not so lucky.
It was very descriptive of the entire incident and showed some excellent footage of Mt Hood.

 

[Tom Rankin]

This aired last night on National Geographic Channel locally.

After watching it, I will NEVER to go Mt. Hood!

Laurie wondered: Should they have turned back sooner, if the conditions were already deteriorating? For safety reasons, don't people try to summit by sunrise on peaks like this, given these conditions? Or perhaps, if they were slow, maybe they should have turned around sooner?

Movie link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1127098/

 

[Chip]

More than 40,000 people register to climb Hood every year and the majority climb the easy route from Timberline Lodge.
I'm pretty sure Hood is like any mountain as far as potential for death is concerned.
I'll try to catch this show, but it's too bad it's all about the NIGHTMARE oooooohhhh, aaaaahhhhhh !!!! Nightmarrie !!!

How about a nice, well produced special about a bunch of VFTT'rs that summit successfully with no loss of life or limb ? BORING !!!

 

[TMax]

This aired last night on National Geographic Channel locally.

After watching it, I will NEVER to go Mt. Hood!

Laurie wondered: Should they have turned back sooner, if the conditions were already deteriorating? For safety reasons, don't people try to summit by sunrise on peaks like this, given these conditions? Or perhaps, if they were slow, maybe they should have turned around sooner?

Movie link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1127098/

This accident had nothing to do with deteriorating conditions. It was simply an unfortunate series of events and an all-to-common problem on highly climbed routes. One rope team fell and pulled other teams off the mountain and into a crevasse. Mostly you want to be off the summit before the day starts heating up and making the snow sloppy. These teams were doing fine in terms of pace and timing.

When Giggy, JayH and I did Hood, a great deal of my thinking and concern was about one of the teams above us coming off and knocking me down! I tried to pay attention to my placement below them on the slope when we were in the same general area as where this accident took place. On our way down, a rope team just behind Giggy and I lost footing, I watched their rope very closely and attempted to move swiftly but safely away from it as they slid by. They self-arrested pretty quickly in the soft snow but it sure made me nervous!

 

[Jay H]

Of course, when you get closer to the ridgeline, naturally all the climbers get pidgeonholed into the best line and of course the footsteps of the climber before you... It's easy to avoid rope lines on a snowfield that is 50yards wide, but care is needed when approaching natural (and unnatural...ladders, fixed rope, etc) bottlenecks. I didn't see the film but from memory, it appears the climbers on Mt Hood WRT to the rope incident weren't really close to the Pearly Gates and had no real excuse (other than probably doing the beeline..shortest route) to be below the other team. Of course, maybe they were simply passing through which sometimes you can't avoid but on the surface, it looked to be an avoidable mistake on both teams.

Jay

 

[cbcbd]

This accident had nothing to do with deteriorating conditions. It was simply an unfortunate series of events and an all-to-common problem on highly climbed routes. One rope team fell and pulled other teams off the mountain and into a crevasse. Mostly you want to be off the summit before the day starts heating up and making the snow sloppy. These teams were doing fine in terms of pace and timing.

Yep, thanks for clearing this up. Before I was headed out West this year my father popped out of nowhere with a Time magazine from 2002 with a very detailed article on what happened.
This was not mother nature's act, it was "pilot error". From what I recall there were 3 rope teams, two coming down past the pearly gates and another going up just past the bergshrund. The last member on the top rope team lost his footing and slipped, pulling his team of 4(5?), they took down the next team of 2, and they all took some of the team of 4(5?) that were coming up. Everyone except for a few from the team going up fell in the bergshrund, killing 3 people.

I didn't go up the Pearly Gates route (took the Old Crater variation) but just as reference, going up Central Gully in Huntington is more technically challenging and steeper (the ice bulge) than that route. Too bad the media paints the mountain with such, as Chip put it, nightmaaarish light.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Lots of hype on the National Geographic channel lately - lots of stuff way overblown. This stuff must appeal to someone, but I don't enjoy the effects of prolonged adrenaline.

 

[Maddy]

I think those climbers involved might have looked at this situation as kind of "living nightmare"
I would probably still be referring to it as "the hike from hell" if I had been involved in this fiasco.
I did like the way the climbers at the scene rose to the occasion, assessing the injured, and then hauling them out, trying to stabilized them as best they could with what little equipment they had to work with.
It amazed me that the news choppers took up the air space and had to be "directed to leave the area" so that the medical choppers could fly in. It's good to know that they made some improvements in response time and air traffic control because of this tragedy.

 

[Chip]

I think those climbers involved might have looked at this situation as kind of "living nightmare"

I agree, for them it would have been a nightmare. It's just sad it has to be billed this way to get people to watch. Like George Carlin "cheering for the body count." I suppose I should be happy it's real Reality TV, at least.

I believe the SAR Helicopters should be equipped with missiles to "dispatch" the news crews'.

 

[Maddy]

I agree, for them it would have been a nightmare. It's just sad it has to be billed this way to get people to watch. Like George Carlin "cheering for the body count." I suppose I should be happy it's real Reality TV, at least.

I believe the SAR Helicopters should be equipped with missiles to "dispatch" the news crews'.

Many "dittos" Chip

 

[--M.]

Lots of hype on the National Geographic channel lately - lots of stuff way overblown. This stuff must appeal to someone, but I don't enjoy the effects of prolonged adrenaline.

Agreed. It's like watching the MLB playoffs on Fox instead of Orsillo/RemDawg. They have to appeal to the larger market and you end up watching crowd shots and human interest stories instead of baseball.

I also agree with your observation about the endless heart attack of stress tv. Who wants a solid hour of "OH MY GOOOOOODDDDDDD!!!!"? Might as well be "COPS."

Oh, by the way: "Hiking." There, now we're back on track. Wink implied.

 

[Paradox]

How about a nice, well produced special about a bunch of VFTT'rs that summit successfully with no loss of life or limb ? BORING !!!

Got anybody in mind, Chip?