La. Brother: Climber found Sunday had left a signal in first cave

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The climber whose body was found Sunday apparently had left a signal that led searchers to the snow cave where he died, says his brother, a Louisiana resident.

Ben James of Raceland, who traveled to Oregon to be with other family members as they awaited word of his brother, said authorities told the family about the sign which Kelly James had left in his original snow cave, along with a sleeping bag, ice axes and some rope.

“He had left a rope in a `Y’ form, a sign that says, `This is where I am going,'” Ben James told an area newspaper. “He had started digging a second cave.”

James said his older brother Frank James made a preliminary identification by describing their brother’s ring and some of his clothes.

The 48-year-old Dallas architect’s body was found near the summit of the 11,239-foot mountain.

“He was a very good Christian, he had four children, and he wanted to teach them to climb,” Ben James said.

Kelly James spoke with his son in Dallas by a cell phone Dec. 10, and said he was staying in a snow cave for shelter while his two companions started back down the mountain to get help for him after an aborted climb. The men were reported missing when they failed to meet a friend at a lodge.

Hood River County Sheriff Joe Wampler said Brian Hall, 37, also of Dallas, and Jerry “Nikko” Cooke, 36, of New York City, may have fallen from a steep slope where the danger of avalanches impeded a search Monday.

Ben James said the search was haphazard. Heavy snow and winds forced searchers back several times. James said that just meant having to scale the same area again after daybreak, so they should have stayed n as the search party that found his brother did once they had found the body.