Dec 14, 2006 6:32 pm US/Central
Cell Phone 'Ping' Spurs New Mt. Hood Hope
Trio Still Missing; 18 Inches Of New Snow On Oregon Mountain, More Expected
COOPER SPUR, Ore. (CBS News) ―
-
-
Jerry "Nikko" Cooke, left, is one of the missing hikers. (File)
CBS
The cell phone of one of three climbers lost on Mount Hood since the weekend received a signal from the cell phone company late Tuesday night, "indicating it was back on," authorities said Thursday.
The T-Mobile cell company has been signaling the cell phone since climber Kelly James, 48, used it to call his family on Sunday.
On Wednesday, the company said the phone went silent the day before.
But on Thursday, the Hood River County sheriff's office said that at 10:55 p.m. Tuesday "T-Mobile received a signal on the phone indicating it was back on, when it had been off."
The sequence of signals suggested that James may have been turning his cell phone off to conserve battery power, a possibility that brought hope to family members who have gathered near the mountain.
"My heart was in my throat when I heard that, because if it's true it means Kelly is alive, and he has his wits about him," his brother, Frank, of Orlando, Fla., said at a news conference.
T-Mobile also reported that the cell phone initiated a call on Monday morning. "If a call was attempted, it was not completed," the sheriff's department said in a statement.
The sheriff's department said T-Mobile continued to signal, or "ping," the cell phone on Wednesday, but the last signal received was on Tuesday night.
Rescue workers confronted stormy weather on the mountain again Thursday and said they would be searching lower elevations in hopes that James' two companions, Brian Hall of Dallas and Jerry "Nikko" Cooke, of Brooklyn, N.Y., had gotten down from near the top of the mountain, where James was believed holed up in a snow cave.
The three set out last week for a quick, two-day climb to the summit.
James' wife, Karen, said at the news conference that the families of the three men remained confident.
"While this is one of the worst weather days, our spirits are still high," she said. "These are three of the most phenomenal men you could ever meet. They're smart, they are strong, and they care so deeply for one another.
"My husband proposed to me on Mount Rainier, and we're planning our 50th wedding anniversary there, so I know he is coming off this mountain."
"Kelly has climbed in the Andes, he has climbed the Eiger, Mount McKinley. He is very experienced and he did exactly the right thing," his brother Frank said on CBS News' The Early Show. "When the weather turned bad, he got a snow cave, built a snow cave and from what I understand that's exactly the right thing to do, to withstand those hurricane-force winds."
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Comments