Anthony Vietti, Katie Nolan missing on Mt Hood

Anthony Vietti, a 24 year old from Longview, and 29-year-old Katie Nolan of Portland have been missing since Friday on Mt Hood. A search in high avalanche conditions was launched. Now because of the hazardous conditions, the search has been suspended.

My heart goes out to the families and friends of Anthony and Katie the missing climbers.

Many of my SAR companions asked what would I have done different?

My response is as follows. The Mountain rescue teams they had up there are some of the best in the nation. I worked and volunteered with Portland Mountain Rescue for many years and developed the search dog program for the state of Oregon with other Mountain rescue folks back in 1986 after the OES accident.

As anything, the SAR program grew political and thus I broke away and went private.

If I managed this search I would have had avalanche ski patrol controllers dump explosive charges to release the threat as much as possible on the West side of the Mtn where the one climber was found dead.

Then I would have brought in two avalanche trained search dogs (Yes we do have them. Have had them for many years). Worked the area to detect where the two remaining climbers are buried in the crevasses, or snow.

Then marked their locations and let the Mtn rescue teams go in and recover the victims.

But alas, I'm not in charge on the Mountain, so like the rest of you, I must just sit here and watch and shake my head. What a sad ending to two young lives.

When we climb rocks, snow, and ice, we all know the risk. To minimize the risk
is something most climbers like to do. I top rope when I can, make sure my anchors are full proof, check my gear, and sometimes that's still not enough.

When I'm climbing, working, searching, in avalanche conditions I always wear my ELT pieps (Avalanche beacon) and for the many years I did SAR on Mt Hood as well as led climbs for the US Forest Service and other agencies, we always had the MLRU's. (Mountain Locator Rescue Units).

But some folks don't feel it's a legit concern to use today's technology. Their families and friends would probably argue this issue especially right now.

It’s too bad search dogs aren’t taken seriously on the mountain.