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No kidding, TooYoung -- those devices are about $5 and don't seem to be encumbering in any way. These people are experienced enough to know that climbing at this time of year is always a craps shoot on Hood -- storms come up very suddenly, no matter what the weather report says. I just saw that whiteout conditions have halted the search for the two survivors. Doesn't look good.

It's just a very sad thing as far as I'm concerned...that 3 young people like that would risk their lives so unnecessarily. Think of the pain it is causing their families & friends. Such a waste.

Tragic. I hope a bunch of climbers will be getting these tracking devices as Christmas gifts.

You know, this happened on Mt. Hood 2-3 yrs ago - 3 hikers - I think about this same time of the year. The body of one of them was found, the other two never found. One of them was from Dallas. It apparently didn't have enough impact then to make a difference - so I doubt that it will this time either.

I think sometimes it is the most experienced that find themselves in that kind of trouble. I have heard a lot where an experienced team will check the weather conditions and judge that they are very favorable and plan on a short climb or a climb they expect to be an easy one and find themselves overtaken by a hard and unexpected turn of weather events and just get caught off guard. But I still think, they of all people, would know it best to be prepared for any situation. Very sad, I hope the other two are found.

I, too am so sorry to hear of this. I'm not sure what they were thinking, but then I'm not one of those kind of risk takers so I don't get it.
Neither do I get people who will take their families on back roads and get themselves lost, be it in cold weather up north or hot deserts in the summer time.
I wasn't aware there were tracking devices available, especially so inexpensively. Absolutely should be required gear!

Okay, here's another head scratcher for me on something else in the news....those 3 young people that were hiking & apparently crossed into Iran a while back. They were arrested & Iran is saying they are spies. I saw in the news yesterday that Iran is going to try them. Can you imagine if they are found guilty? Will they be hanged? Beheaded? Shot by firing squad?

Now why would intelligent young people go to an area like that to hike to start with? I don't care how challenging or beautiful it is. That's a very unstable, dangerous area. Does that increase the thrill? I just don't get it.

When I lived in Russia, I was never ceased to be amazed at how fearless (stupid) some foreigners were while living there. Despite so many of the people being really wonderful, the crime element was high, particularly toward foreigners who were considered "wealthy" by Russian standards. I met two single women who were living there with a small boy and they not only lived in a dangerous part of St. Petersburg, they were living in a ground floor apartment. Even with my husband and/or bodyguards when out in the city, I was robbed twice. We lived in an upstairs apartment with a special bullet proof outer door installed so we could not be shot while I was there. During winter, robbers would hold up women as they would be leaving hotels or businesses, wearing fur coats. Usually by joining them in an elevator and taking the clothes by gunpoint or sometimes blatantly holding them up right on the street.
We were there during the seige and I spent more than a week locked in our apartment because of the risk to Americans during the time. Nope..no way would I travel into the mideast..naivete and belief being American is some kind of safety net is total BS when you are abroad in many of those countries.

It happens all over.

Denali, in Alaska, is far colder and has far worse weather than most other mountains. People come from all over the world to climb the highest mountain in North America. They're warned about getting warmer shoes, warmer clothing, yadda, yadda, yadda. These climbers ignore the park rangers and go climbing. And then, when they end up with severe frostbite and lose a foot or have some other tremendous problem that could have been easily prevented through an application of common sense the state of Alaska spends of tens of thousands of dollars per person to rescue their sorry butts - dead or alive.

I think climbers should have to put up a $30k bond (cash) per person in order to go climbing unless they are with a professional guide service that regularly leads hikes up the mountain (so they know the trail, the conditions, etc.) and then the guide service needs to have a bond as well.

As to the hikers, I guess they got lost. That can happen if you don't take a compass and a map or a GPS.

It can happen in the desert as well. Every month all summer long, police rescue helicopters have to pick tourist hikers off of Camelback Mountain and some other mountains right in the city. They don't carry the right equipment or decide 110 degrees and it is okay to climb. NO. We don't let our kids out to play in the backyard, how could someone in sandals climb a thousand feet up on a giant pile of rock?