Code 1244: The 1986 Mount Hood Tragedy

by Ric Conrad

In May 1986, a private preparatory school's field trip made worldwide headlines. Twenty climbers began ascending what has arguably been called the second-most climbed mountain in the world-Oregon's Mount Hood. Caught in one of the worst blizzards imaginable, they battled the elements while waiting for a rescue. The community responded by launching one of the largest mountain Search and Rescue (SAR) operations in the nation's history. Recognizing that no book concerning the highly controversial story existed, the author spent over four years researching and carefully assembling the heartbreaking pieces of the puzzle. Ric Conrad conducted thirty-seven interviews with key witnesses. He presents the story from several unique those in the command post, directing the operation; those on the individual SAR teams, battling time and the elements; and the friends and family members of the missing climbers, maintaining their multi-day vigil. Representatives from the Clackamas County Sheriff's Department, Portland Mountain Rescue, Seattle Mountain Rescue, Corvallis Mountain Rescue Unit, the Crag Rats, Hillsboro Helicopters, Timberline Lodge, and the 304th Air Force Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron have all shared their memories in this compelling volume. Original strategy directives, team missions, and configurations--all are explored and explained. The oral history gleaned from these interviews, coupled with the author's extensive use of primary documentation, has yielded--at long last--the agonizing, yet heroic story of one of America's worst mountaineering tragedies.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mountaineering, Survival, Adventure

490 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 10, 2020

Reviews

[Julie Young Buckler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't put this book down

Found myself resenting anything that took me from this fascinating read for even one moment. Full of suspense. I'd think maybe just another chapter because you can't not know how the next hour of this story is going to play out. Putting this book down was so difficult for me that I avoided doing so anymore than truly necessary. What a read.

[Wesley Clarillos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ric Conrad did a fantastic job on this book. The bibliography is literally half the book because he did all his homework and only facts are in the book, everything is backed up and he is able to tell a story that is in line with what happened. A easy read and contains a lot of information that you can’t find online. Anyone interested in the tragedy I highly recommend this book, the authors put a lot of energy into interviewing people who where there and tracking down facts. It’s evident in his work he was passionate about writing this. Much appreciated and enjoyed. Plus for the kindle version I didn’t have to wait to read it. -Wesley Clarillos

[Rsvpeterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a riveting account of a harrowing rescue

I liked the pace of the book as it could have been bogged down with repetitive dialogue, but it wasn't. You got a sense of the intensity of the situation for everyone involved. I felt the frustration of the parents who were desperate for updates on the rescue, and they were too few and too far between. Then to hear three "survivors" were found and then they could not be revived; heartbreaking. The medical info was fascinating and in a few cases the outcome was miraculous. At the end of the book I couldn't help but feel despair that the adults didn't call off the attempt to summit. Why was one person given the authority for a decision that was ultimately of the greatest magnitude? A true tragedy.

[lara phillips · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's the only book about the event AFAIK, but it's really 75% about the search and rescue efforts, which were so detailed as to be uninteresting to me. Detailed descriptions of where Team 1 and 2 searched are useless to the layman without maps or diagrams (I'm shocked that this book included none!). Also surprisingly, the book totally ignores the aftermath of the event: the inquest/lawsuits against the school are not mentioned at all. There is a "where are they now" part about the survivors and family members of the victims, which is good, but ultimately this book is more about the logistics of the rescue effort.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a tough read because it reads like a docuseries. Every single action is recorded in "time" format and it's hard to keep all the people involved straight. I like true life survival novels so wanted to read this. I don't remember this particular event. A total of 8 people died I believe. Just by a fluke they found the snow cave, after 4 days of searching. What those kids went through I can't imagine. There are some unanswered questions, such as were there any civil lawsuits against the school? Against Father Goman's family? I'm not a climber nor an investigator but even I could see there was some serious issues with what happened to these kids.

[Devon King · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the level of detail in this book and it told me a story that I had not heard about before. That being said, I would have loved maps/photos/diagrams/ANYTHING to help show the search and rescue efforts and ultimately where the survivors were located. It was impossible to try to imagine and there were so many people and moving parts it started to get confusing. Also, the book treads very carefully into the fault and aftermath, when it could have taken a firmer stance on its own analysis of the incident. Overall it was a good read.

[Tarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I knew the outcome, I couldn’t put it down. At times it might seem over-detailed, but I enjoyed it. I also did not realize just how long they spent on the mountain before I read this. They spent an entire extra night and day from what I thought. Anyway, really informational book about an awful tragedy.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice story

A lot of detail of the tragedy in Mount hood. Also recommend the podcast “Against the odds”. Sometime I fell it goes into unnesesary details of rescue operation. At the end, It lets you satisfied with the information provided.

[Doris Raines · Rating 3 out of 5]

NICE BOOK.

[Bob Fahey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not enough about the aftermath. Who is at fault?

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very sad story and really well written. The book was so captivating that I read it in 3 days.

Amazing story and an incredible effort from so many volunteers !!

[Samantha Kendall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad story but well told.

[Klaas Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The wish to both honor all people involved in the tragedy and present the reader an almost encyclopedic description of those fateful days made the flow of the storytelling quite thick with a massive amount of names (every time there's a rescuer's meeting you get a list of names of those who were present) and (in my view unnecessary) details. Moreover I found the choice of constantly changing from place to place, from individual to individual -trying to follow faithfully the precise timeline of the tragedy- making it difficult to get into the narrative (personally I could only read one or two chapters at a time). The purely descriptive instead of both descriptive and analytic approach of this work makes it mostly interesting for people (in)directly involved in the tragedy, not for people who have little knowledge of the what and why of this drama (compare: Into Thin Air actually offers both description and analysis). Some maps would have been helpfull. I do admire the extensive research done for thoroughly grounding the narrative, but to me it presents only half of the story.
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