PORTLAND – Searchers found the body of a missing climber early Tuesday morning on Mount Hood.
Clackamas County deputies said 32-year-old Jared Townsley, of Tigard, was an experienced climber who had reached the summit of Mount Hood as many as 15 times. The search for him began after he failed to make it down the mountain as planned on Monday.
Townsley left Timberline at midnight Monday and was expected to return by 11 a.m. Other climbers on Mount Hood told authorities they saw Townsley descending around 8:30 a.m. at Crater Rock, near the top of the mountain but below the summit.
"The people who saw him (Townsley) made it back down," said Deputy Nate Thompson, of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office. "There's concern about a possible fall, or he got off the main route and is lost."
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Townsley's vehicle was still in the parking lot and he had not signed back into the climber’s registry. Searchers were optimistic as they left the command post.
"Head lamps and white snow are pretty reflective," said volunteer searcher Erik Broms. "We can cover a lot of ground and see a lot of area with the conditions the way they are."
Just a day earlier, a Portland woman fell 300 feet on Mt. Hood and suffered injuries to her ribs and leg. She had been on her way back down the mountain after reaching the summit. Megan Coker, 35, thanked rescuers from her hospital bed on Monday.
More: Climber thanks rescuers after 300-foot fall on Mt. Hood
Coker said two of the rescuers kept her warm with their body heat as she waited for six hours to be safely airlifted off the mountain.
