Hope Fades for Eight Caught in Mt. Hood Storm
Rescuers and dog teams today searched for six teen-agers and two adults missing on Mt. Hood since a blizzard ambushed their school expedition Monday, but hopes faded that they would be found alive.
After three teen-agers from the party were found frozen Wednesday, an Air Force helicopter with an infrared device that can detect temperature variations of 2 degrees flew over the mountain but found nothing, said Air Force Staff Sgt. John Harkness.
Dogs trained for mountain work were brought from Seattle, but were also unable to find the missing climbers.
Six ground teams with dogs searched the rough, icy 10,000-foot level of the mountain today. The 30 searchers planned to use metal detectors and snow probes in an attempt to find any climbers buried in the snow.
The Rev. Roy Coulter of the Oregon Episcopal High School, which sponsored the climbers’ wilderness outing, said family members were bracing for the worst.
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