The OTHER missing climbers

[1969912 0]

This has had little press, but at almost the same time as the Mt. Hood incident took place, two other US climbers were lost.

Christine Boskoff and Charlie Fowler, guides with Mountain Madness in Seattle, disappeared while attempting a difficult 6 km peak in China.

Condolences to Mountain Madness, who's founder, Scott Fischer, was lost in the 1996 Everest nightmare.

Amer. Alpine Club News

"Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ."
-NickDG

[guppie01 0]

I read about them yesterday... very sad, noone even knew they were missing until they did not return to the US on Dec. 4.

I feel terrible for all the families....

g

"Let's do something romantic this Saturday... how bout we bust out the restraints?"
Raddest Ho this side of Jersey #1 - MISS YOU
OMG, is she okay?

[NickDG 23]

Also at the same time three South Africans went missing off Portland, Or. when their cat overturned. The boat washed ashore, but it didn't seem like much of an effort was made to find them. (Compared to the rescue effort at Mt. Hood.) Those guys could be still floating around in a small rubber raft out there.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/16/BAGI9N0S921.DTL

NickD BASE 194

[cloudseeker2001 0]

I bet the Dallas climbers had some media connections.

"Some call it heavenly in it's brilliance,
others mean and rueful of the western dream"

[JohnMitchell 16]

Quote

Also at the same time three South Africans went missing off Portland, Or. when their cat overturned. The boat washed ashore, but it didn't seem like much of an effort was made to find them. (Compared to the rescue effort at Mt. Hood.) Those guys could be still floating around in a small rubber raft out there.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/12/16/BAGI9N0S921.DTL

Several days, 5 helicopters and a C-130? Sounds like they searched pretty hard. Just when do you give up the search? That's a question with no easy answers.

[FlyingJ 0]

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Several days, 5 helicopters and a C-130? Sounds like they searched pretty hard. Just when do you give up the search? That's a question with no easy answers.

Seems like they would have likely given up the Mt. Hood search sooner too had they not found evidence of the guys potentially surviving (empty snow cave, cell phone call, etc.). That and the bad weather days that stopped them from doing anything probably drew it out longer than it might have been had it been straight days in a row searching.

Of course the sad part of it is that regardless of the reason, the media (and therefore the public) jumped on board and you are pretty much guaranteed that the search will go longer. It creates additional interest in people being out there helping as well as creates additional resources to be used in the search that a SAR action couldn't be continued without.

Killing threads since 2004.

[JohnMitchell 16]

Yep, and the fact that it all was happening from parking lots around Mt. Hood, close to Portland, as opposed to miles off the coast in crappy NW weather might have had something to do with the difference in news coverage. I'm often surprised at what gets played up on the local TV news compared to what I feel were the top stories of the day.

[FlyingJ 0]

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Yep, and the fact that it all was happening from parking lots around Mt. Hood, close to Portland, as opposed to miles off the coast in crappy NW weather might have had something to do with the difference in news coverage. I'm often surprised at what gets played up on the local TV news compared to what I feel were the top stories of the day.

I'm sure that just having the sentimental nature of the cell phone call had a lot to do with it. It is sad what we latch on to and why, but it's human nature and nobody can really deny it. Nobody is more or less important, but sadly some events do make better "stories".

Killing threads since 2004.