Authorities say there’s little chance the missing Mount Hood climbers are alive

Authorities: Little chance Ore. climbers are alive

GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. — Two climbers missing for five days on Mount Hood are likely no longer alive, authorities said Tuesday. Dr Terri Schmidt, an expert on hypothermia and mountain survival, said at a news conference with other officials that there was less than a 1 percent chance that Anthony Vietti and Katie Nolan had survived after going missing on Friday.

Steve Rollins, a search leader, said even if the rescuers knew where the two climbers were, teams would not be able to get to them because of avalanche dangers caused by a heavy snow storm.

Rescuers say they don’t foresee resuming the search.

Earlier in the day, Schmidt met with worried relatives of the climbers about the chances of surviving the extreme conditions of Mount Hood.

Rescuers had clung to hope Vietti and Nolan were still alive somewhere on Oregon’s highest peak, possibly in a snow cave they might have hacked out with ice picks.

But a whiteout expected to dump as much as two feet of new snow on the mountain prevented a helicopter and ground teams from resuming the search on Tuesday.

The storm was expected to last until Thursday.

“It doesn’t look good,” Jim Strovink, spokesman for the search and rescue operation, said about the forecast. “This could hang on for a couple of days.”

Luke Gullberg, a companion of Vietti and Nolan, was found dead on a glacier Saturday. An autopsy showed he suffered minor injuries in a fall and died of hypothermia,

Strovink said Schmidt intended to meet with relatives of the climbers earlier in the day and answer questions about the health dangers faced on the mountain by Vietti, 24, of Longview, Wash., and Nolan, 29, of Portland.

Intermittent snow and subfreezing temperatures hampered the search since it began on the 11,249-foot mountain.

Gullberg, 26, of Des Moines, Wash., was found without his pack or the ropes that had apparently bound the group together at some point.