UPDATE, 5/13/14, 11:30 AM: SEARCH PARTIES HAVE LOCATED THE MISSING CLIMBER, AND HE IS PRESUMED DEAD.

Hood River County Sheriffs are organizing an aerial search for a missing climber who was seen falling an estimated 1,000 feet in the area of Eliot Glacier Tuesday morning.

A climber reported seeing another climber fall in the area of Eliot Glacier at around 8 am Tuesday, May 13. Hood River County Sheriffs immediately initiated a rescue effort using a fixed wing search plane, supported by volunteer on-the-ground rescue experts from the Crag Rats out of Hood River.

The climber who fell was reportedly climbing solo, and fell an estimated 1,000 feet before witnesses lost sight of him or her.

More information about the search-and-rescue effort to come once it becomes available.

In November 2013 search-and-rescue teams rescued a 62-year-old climber named John Richard Andrews who fell 800 feet into a crater near the Hogsback on the south side of Mount Hood.

Other recent searches on the north side of the mountain have not gone so well. The most recent Mount Hood fatality was a 32-year-old Polish military officer and combat photographer named Sebastian Kinsiewicz, who attempted to summit the North side solo and fell 1,000 feet to his death on August 11, 2013.

Kinsiewicz’s death was one of three Mount Hood fatalities in the summer of 2013.

Last modified: May 13, 2014