STORM2K

HOOD RIVER, Ore. - Teams looking for three missing climbers on Mount Hood found a body after searching a second snow cave Sunday, an official said.

The dead climber had not yet been identified, said Pete Hughes, a spokesman for the Hood River County Sheriff's Office. The body was believed to be one of the three missing climbers, authorities said.

The body was found in a snow cave — but not the one that was first searched earlier Sunday, he said.

Tstormwatcher wrote:and more than likely, the other two are also dead. very sad news.

HOOD RIVER, Ore. - Two climbers missing on Mount Hood may have fallen on a steep slope on their way down Oregon's highest mountain, authorities said Monday as the search resumed on a clear day and a team prepared to retrieve the body of a third climber found dead in a snow cave.

Air crews will survey the area because avalanche conditions make it unsafe for ground crews to head through a treacherous side of the mountain known as "the gullies," where climbers have fallen in the past, said Sheriff Joe Wampler.

The body of Kelly James, 48, of Dallas was found in one of two snow caves that the climbers hacked into the side of the mountain. Searchers found the cave Sunday near the area located by signals from the cell phone James used to place a four-minute distress call to relatives a little more than a week ago.

His brother, Frank James, told reporters that a ring found on the body confirmed the identity.

"This is a difficult day for all three families," he said choking back tears. "I feel that I have two other brothers still on the mountain."

Kelly James and his two colleagues are thought to have climbed the north face of Mount Hood and reached the 11,239-foot summit late in the day of Friday, and then tried to descend the gentler south face, passing through a rock and ice formation known as "the Pearly Gates," Wampler said.

"They didn't find it," he said.

Brian Hall, 37, also of Dallas, and Jerry "Nikko" Cooke, 36, of New York City, then backtracked about 300 feet down the side they had ascended, Wampler said.

"They dug a cave that probably housed all three of them Friday night," the sheriff said. Saturday morning two of the climbers left the caves trying to descend a precipice lying between the Elliott Glacier and a ridge called Cooper Spur.

"Now the weather was getting really bad," he said.

Searchers found ropes and anchors that they believed the climbers used to cling to the side of the mountain during high winds. Gusts of up to 100 mph were reported during a storm that hit the area over the weekend that the climbers disappeared.

Authorities hope a medical examination of James' body would help in the search or explain what happened to the expedition, Wampler said.

Family members had relied on intense religious faith along with confidence that the trio's extensive mountaineering experience would save them from a week of blizzards and single-digit temperatures that hampered search teams on the mountain and in aircraft.

James had told his family that his climbing party was in trouble and that Brian Hall, 37, also of Dallas, and Jerry "Nikko" Cooke, 36, of New York City, had headed back down, apparently for help. James may have been injured.

James' mother, Lou Ann Cameron, told The Associated Press she did not want to talk about her son and referred questions to the Hood River County Sheriff's Office.