Searchers Find Body In Ice Cave

Still hope for two lost climbers, rescuers spend night on Mount Hood

By JOSH SILVERMAN in Hood River, Ore., & ERIC LENKOWITZ in N.Y.

December 18, 2006 -- One of the three climbers - including a Brooklyn lawyer - missing on Oregon's Mount Hood for more than a week was found dead yesterday in an ice cave near the summit, but hope remained that the two other men would be found alive, officials said.

The body was found by a team of searchers sent up to explore another nearby cave, which had been located Saturday by a helicopter 300 feet below the north side of the mountain's 11,239-foot peak.

"There was a secondary snow cave that was discovered," said Oregon National Guard spokesman Capt. Mike Braibish. "Our climbers did get inside the snow cave and have confirmed that there is one fatality. We do not have the identity of that individual at this time."

Officials said the families of the three men, including negligence lawyer Jerry "Nikko" Cooke of Bay Ridge, had been notified that a body had been found.

The grim discovery came about two hours after rescuers reached the first cave, where they found climbing equipment inside and outside the makeshift shelter. A letter "Y" - a makeshift climbing signal for "Yes, we are here" - was formed by rope in the snow outside.

But despite the "Y," disappointed searches found no one inside.

Officials said their search will continue, on the assumption the other two men are still alive.

"The searchers are pouring their hearts and souls into this right now," Braibish said. "We continue to search, we continue to look, we remain hopeful.

"We continue to proceed with this as a rescue for the two remaining climbers."

Yesterday's foot search on the treacherous slope was called off at sunset, before darkness became a hazard. Some searchers said they would stay hunkered down on the mountain overnight to be in the best position to resume their search today.

Rescuers were flown by helicopter to the top of the peak and made a daring descent to the hand-dug snow shelter marked by the rope "Y." Two air holes had been cut into the top of the cave.

Scattered about the site - which is near where a cellphone signal from climber Kelly James was picked up Tuesday - were two ice axes, rope coils, a sleeping bag and other climbing equipment.

The searchers also found a fading trail of footsteps heading toward the summit.

Rescue coordinator Bill Pattison said it was "alarming" that the ice axes would have been left behind, since they serve as a "lifeline on the mountain."

He said it is "quite possible" that the climbers may have become delirious because of hypothermia. Temperatures near the summit have plummeted to 18 degrees below zero.

James, 48, of Dallas had called relatives last Sunday, saying he was in a snow cave and that the other two men - Cooke, 36, and Brian Hall, 37, also of Dallas - were going to get help.

The trio had embarked on their climb three days earlier, on Dec. 7.

The men's relatives and friends kept vigil at the base of the mountain yesterday. At one point, they gathered to lay their hands in silent prayer on one of two Black Hawk helicopters before it embarked on its search mission.

"It's a roller-coaster of emotions," said Hall's father, Dwight, who got choked up as he talked about the day, hours before a body had been found.

Milagros and Delfin Javan, Cooke's father- and mother-in-law, were in their Rutherford, N.J., home "watching TV, watching the news," said the family housekeeper, "just hoping and praying that they find him."

Braibish said the rescuers' descent to the first cave site had been rife with peril, including the threat of avalanches and a crevasse.

"It's a very steep area up there," he said. "It's very risky to get them to this elevation."

The roughly 100 expert mountaineers were divided into three groups: one to tackle the relatively easy south face; another to attempt the far more difficult north face; and the third to act in a supportive role. Meanwhile, Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters, equipped with heat-sensing devices, circled overhead.

Many of the pilots and onboard personnel had flown and participated in missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, authorities said.

The area is so dangerous that officials last night said they would wait until daylight today to attempt to get the body down from the mountain.

Survival expert Greg Davenport said he would have thought that if the missing men were alive, they might have used a signal mirror or wave some reflective material by now to try to attract rescuers.

"It's somewhat disheartening to me and sad that hasn't occurred," Davenport told Fox News. "But they're still within a timeframe [that] they could be surviving on that mountain."

Experts said hope for the men's survival could hinge on the equipment they still have with them and the effectiveness of any snow caves they may build.

The key to a good cave is for it to be warm and small, though with enough room for toilet needs.

Although the need for food and water decreases as the body gets colder, any snow consumed as water must be melted down to avoid hypothermia, Davenport said.

Among the anxious crowd of loved ones waiting for word on the missing men was Dr. Victor Lopez Jr., Cooke's lifelong friend, college roommate and the best man at his wedding.

Lopez said he always admired how his friend and his mother, a Korean immigrant abandoned by her husband when Cooke was 14, went from living in a Bay Ridge basement to owning the building.

Cooke went on to work his way through Stony Brook University and get his law degree from NYU.

Lopez said that he and Cooke started with basic rock-climbing classes but that Cooke quickly wanted to take it to the next level.

"He would say all the time, 'You can go out and do whatever you want - just make sure you make it back to work on time,' " Lopez said.

Additional reporting by Jana Winter.

Source: The New York Post