Hubert A. Allen, Jr. has been climbing and writing for more than thirty years. His first mountaineering experience was ice schooling and a guided ascent up Mount Rainier at age 15. During summer trips he climbed in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Colorado. While a Brown University student he climbed in the Northeast and was head of the Brown Outing Club. In the summer of 1981 he climbed with the now famous British climber Joe Simpson in the Alps. After completing a Master's of Science in Biostatistics, from Johns Hopkins University, he lived in Malawi, Africa, for three years. There he was the first American climber to climb the 5,500 foot West Face of Chambe Peak. He now lives in New Mexico.

Introduction

A Cell Phone Call

Tilly Jane Warming Hut

The North Face Climb

The Deep Blue Zone

The Snow Cave

Alone

Search and Rescue Efforts

The Media

A Brief History of Mount Hood Accidents

Analysis

The Final Class Act

Search and Recovery

Mountaineering crossed a threshold in popular culture when it caught national attention on television in December 2006 with the live coverage of the search for three climbers lost on Oregon's Mount Hood. Literally hundreds of reports, camera crews, live segments, and talking-heads grew out of the week and a half effort. The story spiraled into leads on cable channels, network nightly news broadcasts and on morning talk shows. When the search was concluded the story disappeared from the televised media with many questions left unanswered and many miconceptions left in place. Inside these pages of Mount Hood, The Deep Blue Zone is the most credible story of what happened to these three men on Mount Hood. The author has pieced together the story using media accounts, verification with the search and rescuers, weather forensics and a re-enactment of the hike up to where the climbers spent their last night among other humans. Having experience climbing in winter conditions and on Mount Hood only enhance the credibility of the author's work.