Climber rescued after 700-foot fall on Mount Hood
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A Happy Valley man was rescued after a 700-foot fall from the Old Chute area near the summit of Mount Hood, authorities wrote in a news release Sunday.
Around 6:30 a.m. Saturday, a 43-year-old man climbing up a popular route up the mountain’s western face lost his ice axe and tumbled down the steep and icy mountainside, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office reported.
Search and rescue coordinators with the sheriff’s office, Portland Mountain Rescue, Hood River Crag Rats and more set up a command center at Timberline Lodge, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
A rescue team reached the injured climber just before 10:30 a.m. Around 1 p.m., an Oregon Army National Guard helicopter landed nearby, lowered a litter and flew the patient to a Portland-area hospital.
This is the second accident on Mount Hood in a week, the sheriff’s office reported. On June 24, a 31-year-old Portland woman fell from nearly the same spot, resulting in another helicopter evacuation.
