The Nation - News from July 25, 1986

The leader of a high school climbing expedition on Mt. Hood in which nine people died should have led the group back five hours into the climb because of fatigue and weather conditions, a group of experts said. The climbers from Oregon Episcopal School in Portland were caught on the mountain when a storm struck on May 12. Three were found frozen to death on May 14, and eight others were found inside a cave on May 15, six of them dead. The school assembled a committee of climbing experts to investigate the climb and assess the school’s outdoors program, which included a Mt. Hood climb for most sophomores. School officials refused to comment on the report.