# Mt. Hood Climbers

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-hood-climbers/384694>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [December 18, 2006, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-hood-climbers/384694 "2006-12-18T21:42:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-hood-climbers/384694/1 "2006-12-18T21:42:55Z")

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Obviously, I feel sorry for them and their families.

What I don’t get is why they ever went up. They were obviously experienced and knowledgeable climbers - they knew to make a snow cave and a distress signal. The only thing they did wrong was to start climbing a dangerous mountain when the worst storm in a decade or more was barelling in on them. It wasn’t as if this storm came out of nowhere - it had been well forecasted and warnings were out.

It’s not as if they made a bad decision when they were affected by altitude - it’s only 11,000 feet on the summit - lower than the top of many Colorado ski areas.

I keep thinking of the guy in “Into the Wild”, but he was just ignorant - these guys had to know what they were getting into.

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**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-hood-climbers/384694/2 "2006-12-18T21:52:57Z")

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Already going: [Missing Mountain Climbers - suicidal or just stupid? - Great Debates - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=400108)

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**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-hood-climbers/384694/3 "2006-12-18T21:54:48Z")

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OK. This can be closed.

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**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2006, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mt-hood-climbers/384694/4 "2006-12-20T20:03:35Z")

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Thread closed at the request of the OP.