Volunteers with Portland Mountain Rescue donned respirators and gas monitors last week as they faced the toxic environment created by volcanic vents at the Devil’s Kitchen fumarole on Mount Hood. It was a unique hazard during a search and rescue mission, according to rescue leader Mark Morford.
“Our mentality is managing risk not taking risks, so we are very careful,” Morford said. “The worst thing that we could do on the mission is have one of our rescuers injured.”
File photo: Mount Hood on a sunny day, seen from Portland. Four rescues happened on the mountain in the last week of January.
Alan Sylvestre / OPB
It was a rare rescue, made even rarer by it being just one of four on Mount Hood in a one-week period. “For our unit, or for rescues on Mount Hood generally, that’s a high frequency in such a short period,” he said.
Portland Mountain Rescue conducts search and rescue missions involving high angle rock, snow and ice, usually above the timberline on Mount Hood. The organization is run by volunteers who use their own equipment and private donations. They receive no funding from the government. People who are assisted by the rescue team hold no financial liability. But, Morford said, people can still take responsibility by researching, preparing and avoiding mountain activity that they don’t have the skills and equipment to handle.
“The primary factor in all the rescues that we did this past week was human judgment causing the underlying incident,” Morford said. “It’s a case of people overestimating their skills and underestimating the conditions. In the winter, you can make one small misjudgment and it will snowball on you.”
While the sudden surge in rescues on the mountain in late January was unusual, Morford said rescues on Mount Hood in the winter have been steadily increasing over the last decade. “We started seeing people climbing the mountain in the winter; A lot of backcountry skiers and snowboarders going up the mountain in the winter,” he said. “That wasn’t something people did even 10 years ago, certainly not 20 and 30 years ago.” And since the pandemic, a spike in rescues occurred as more people sought recreation outdoors, as indoor options were deemed less safe. “We saw a lot more people on the mountain beginning in 2020, and that appears to have continued.”
As to what caused the spike, Morford believes clear skies recently encouraged more people to take on Mount Hood.
“We’ve just come off of a period of two-and-a-half weeks of clear skies,” Morford said. “And not necessarily for good reason, that has drawn more people to the upper mountain.”
While the sunny weather may seem like a great time to hike, Morford said it is quite the opposite on the highest parts of Mount Hood. As the sun melts the snow, it re-freezes into ice formations.
“It’s an icy surface and if you fall, you’re gonna slide on it,” he said. “But as you slide, you just get beat up on all these ice formations that you’re sliding down on.” Morford suggested people consult the Northwest Avalache Center’s website for daily conditions before any recreation on Oregon’s snowy mountains.