At a Monday morning press conference, Hood River County Sheriff Joe Wampler revealed details searchers have learned about how three missing climbers became trapped on Mt. Hood. Here is a transcript of Wampler’s report:

This is what we surmise happened on top of Mt. Hood.

We think that the three climbers left Tilly Jane and climbed -- as far as we can tell because of their conversations with people on the mountain -- that they climbed the right gully (of Cooper Spur) to the summit of Mt. Hood, and that they actually summitted.

When they got to the summit of Mt. Hood, it looks like they – and this is where we’re guessing because of footprints – it looks like they went south along the summit ridge of Mt. Hood, maybe looking for the entrance to the Pearly Gates, which is the route back down that they had planned on doing.

Somehow, because of weather probably, and visibility, they didn’t get down it.

Ore. National Guard

Rope anchor marks the likely last known location of two climbers missing on Mt. Hood

They were right there at the top of it but instead they broke off the east side of the mountain, all three of them together, they dropped down about 300 feet, straight above the Newton-Clark Glacier, and dug a cave that probably housed all three of them on the Friday night.

From there, probably Saturday morning, it looks like two of those climbers left that cave and went back north to just below the summit ridge. Their intention was, in case something went wrong they were going to descend the Cooper Spur Route, which is virtually right next to the place where they had climbed up.

But now the weather was getting bad, and it’s pretty obvious because they were having to dig in.

So now we have two climbers working their way back to where they came from. You’re talking about a point on top of the mountain that can go anywhere.

Because there was an anchor, with a snow cave -- and it was more like a shelter. It wasn’t a good snow cave like the first one they built, where the body was -- it was more like a plce that they cut out of the snow on a steep hillside, to work from, because it had an anchor right there, two aluminum snow anchors driven into the snow with some webbing.

It only told us that, while they were there they put something into the snow while they were working, to be safe. There were two slings coming off that, which kind of indicates that two people used their caribiners to clip in to the rope, for the purpose of just being stable on a steep slope on the mountain.

At that point, there were some ice axes found there, two short hand-held ice axes. They were both exactly the same so we can assume that that was probably the property of one climbers. There was a little piece of foam sleeping pad, there wasn’t a sleeping bag, it was a little foam pad, something to sit or lay on. Then one wool glove. There was a piece of rope there, and so we can only assume that that was the last known location of two of the climbers. Right above one of the most…historically, we’ve had a lot of problems in this area in the event of a fall…and that’s really what we’re looking at today.

We think that the three climbers left Tilly Jane and climbed -- as far as we can tell because of their conversations with people on the mountain -- that they climbed the right gully (of Cooper Spur) to the summit of Mt. Hood, and that they actually summitted.

When they got to the summit of Mt. Hood, it looks like they – and this is where we’re guessing because of footprints – it looks like they went south along the summit ridge of Mt. Hood, maybe looking for the entrance to the Pearly Gates, which is the route back down that they had planned on doing.

Somehow, because of weather probably, and visibility, they didn’t get down it.

They were right there at the top of it but instead they broke off the east side of the mountain, all three of them together, they dropped down about 300 feet, straight above the Newton-Clark Glacier, and dug a cave that probably housed all three of them on the Friday night.

From there, probably Saturday morning, it looks like two of those climbers left that cave and went back north to just below the summit ridge. Their intention was, in case something went wrong they were going to descend the Cooper Spur Route, which is virtually right next to the place where they had climbed up.

But now the weather was getting bad, and it’s pretty obvious because they were having to dig in.

So now we have two climbers working their way back to where they came from. You’re talking about a point on top of the mountain that can go anywhere.

Because there was an anchor, with a snow cave -- and it was more like a shelter. It wasn’t a good snow cave like the first one they built, where the body was -- it was more like a plce that they cut out of the snow on a steep hillside, to work from, because it had an anchor right there, two aluminum snow anchors driven into the snow with some webbing.

It only told us that, while they were there they put something into the snow while they were working, to be safe. There were two slings coming off that, which kind of indicates that two people used their caribiners to clip in to the rope, for the purpose of just being stable on a steep slope on the mountain.

At that point, there were some ice axes found there, two short hand-held ice axes. They were both exactly the same so we can assume that that was probably the property of one climbers. There was a little piece of foam sleeping pad, there wasn’t a sleeping bag, it was a little foam pad, something to sit or lay on. Then one wool glove. There was a piece of rope there, and so we can only assume that that was the last known location of two of the climbers. Right above one of the most…historically, we’ve had a lot of problems in this area in the event of a fall…and that’s really what we’re looking at today.