HOOD RIVER, Ore. -- Two of three climbers missing on Mount Hood may have fallen from a steep slope where the danger of avalanches impeded a search Monday, an official said.

KGW photo

Rescuers found footsteps in the snow leading away from a first snow cave.

Taking advantage of the best weather since the three went missing nine days ago, searchers on Sunday found the body of a Dallas man who had placed a distress call to relatives.

The body of Kelly James, 48, was found in one of two snow caves that the climbers hacked into the side of the mountain. 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," James said. "I feel that I have two other brothers still on the mountain," he said, choking back tears.

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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, Dec. 8, and then tried to descend the gentler south face, passing through a rock and ice formation known as "the Pearly Gates."

"They didn't find it," said Sheriff Joe Wampler, of Hood River County.

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 told a news conference.

"They dug a cave that probably housed all three of them Friday night. 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," Wampler said.

"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.

Rescuers on Monday planned to recover the body of the dead climber for medical examination, looking for clues that might aid in the search or explain what happened to the expedition, Wampler said.

Ground and air teams resumed the search in relatively clear weather Monday, in the area where the two climbers are thought to have disappeared. The slope there is prone to avalanches and and at the moment it's too dangerous for mountaineers.

"Right now it's an unsafe place to be," Wampler said.