2006 Mt. Hood Tragedy Sparks Book From Lost Climber’s Wife

November 14, 2008

Mt. Hood became a deathtrap in December of 2006. Three experienced climbers would be caught up in a drama of survival that would unfold before the nation’s eyes. All three would perish. Kelly James’ body would be discovered in a snowcave a week after the drama began. The two others, Brian Hall and James ‘Nikko’ Cooke, would never be found.

Throughout the course of a two week period, this ongoing drama of real life events would top the nation’s news. Beginning with the first alert for the missing climbers, I began to watch and give updates as to what was going on in a minute-by-minute basis. In a two week period, The Adventurist put up over 50 articles based on this single event and the search that ensued. This tragedy became a nation’s fixation and pulled at our heart strings.

Two years after this drama unfolded, I still find myself thinking back to that single event. Perhaps it was the night that I first heard of the authorities finding the body of Kelly James. Through the comments and thoughts, prayers, and the visits by the climbers’ family’s to this site in the ensuing hours, I had somehow found myself crying.

Somebody whom I had begun to know and understand through their family and friends, had just been found dead. I am sure I had many of the same thoughts that these climbers’ family and friends had. What went wrong? How could this happen to three individuals so experienced, and is the risk worth the adventure on these types of expeditions. That last question I still find myself contemplating.

This past summer, just a few months back, another tragedy would take place. This one involved the second highest mountain in the world-also the toughest, in one of the most remote areas of the world- Pakistan. The tragedy on K2 would leave upwards of 11 people dead and three survivors. Many of the lost climbers were some of the best in the world. Still, they were struck down the same.

Flashback: Mt. Hood 2006

Over the past two years of covering these types of stories, I have discovered something about myself. I can be a crybaby. The adventurers who take part in these types of expeditions are geared towards success. It is ingrained to push your limits and to not fall to failure. Many of these adventurers succeed at accomplishing their goals, a rare few do not. Those rare few are the ones that make us ask why we venture on, what tolls we are putting on our families, and to how far we are willing to push ourselves towards something that can only be seen as selfish. An individual goal outweighs any other meaning we have.

Todd Carmichael continues walking in Antarctica. His goal of reaching the South Pole, solo and unsupported, is merely a few hundred miles away. His wife, a few thousand. She understands Todd’s passion. She knows that in order for him to be happy in life, he must first be able to be happy within himself.

Todd has spent the past two years training for this opportunity. It eats at him. He is a successful business man, a man with great charisma and intuition, who many of us would look upon as already being a success. His life has been blessed with allowing Todd the freedom to be able to take up his passions and live out his dreams. His wife supports what he does.

Flashback: Mt. Hood 2006

Kelly James’ wife, Karen, supported her husband till the end. While James was suffering in a snowcave high atop Mt. Hood, she urged him to not fall asleep and to not give up. Somehow, in 130mph winds and windchills in the minus‘, Kelly james was able to reach his wife one final time. When nobody else in the world could find Kelly, he could still find his wife via cellphone.

What had started out as an early training climb for Mt. Everest, would become a life-altering event for three separate families. These families had come together to share their husband’s passions and to support what they do. In the end, they would be forced to support each other.

In 2008, Karen is still trying to understand those fateful nights of 2006. Her last conversation, urging her husband forward, would come to symbolize the next two years. She had to force herself forward. She had to struggle on knowing that her next meeting with Kelly wouldn’t come till after this life was over.

Karen James has just published a new book detailing the 2006 Mt. Hood tragedy. There have been others on the scene before her, but Karen’s comes from the first-hand accounts of what she has had to deal with. It gives up some new information about the tragedy on Mt. Hood and delves into the account of what it’s like when you come face-to-face with your worst fears. “Holding Fast: The Untold Story of the Mt. Hood Tragedy” is Karen’s attempt at reconstructing the events, the life, and the final momments, of what took place during those fateful days in 2006.

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