*** Fatality on Mt Hood's Cooper Spur ***

From: Oregon Mountaineering Assocation. oma@i-world.net
AP: Hood River man killed climbing Mount Hood was an experienced athlete. 

09/08/97 3:21 AM Eastern 

HOOD RIVER, Ore. (AP) -- Friends say Mark Fraas was an
experienced athlete who had climbed Mount Hood and Mount
Adams several times and was an expert telemark skier, kayaker, and
top-rated martial arts specialist. 

But the 40-year-old's experience couldn't save him Saturday as a fatal
fall took him 1,500 feet over ice, snow and rocks on the northeast
side of Mount Hood. 

Fraas and Rodney Brenneman of San Juan Capistrano, Calif., were
carrying skis along the Cooper Spur route Saturday morning. They
were not trying to reach the summit, said Craig McCurdy, a
spokesman for the Mount Hood Crag Rats, a mountain-rescue team.
It is not clear how high the men had planned to climb. 

About 7:30 a.m., the men reached the 10,000-foot level of the
11,240-foot peak. Fraas lost his grip and slid through an area known
as the Chisholm Trail, the Hood River County Sheriff's office said. He
landed on the upper part of Eliot Glacier. 

Minutes later, Brenneman called for help on a cellular phone. 

About 25 rescuers and volunteers responded, including the Crag
Rats, the sheriff's office and a helicopter team from the 304th Rescue
Squadron of the 939th Rescue Wing of the U.S. Air Force Reserves. 

The helicopter team used a cable to lower three rescuers and a litter
to the mountain just downslope of Fraas, an Air Force spokesman
said. Not until rescuers climbed up the mountain did they discover that
Fraas was dead. 

Brenneman was not injured. 

Fraas owned Airtime Hood River, Inc., which manufactured clothing
for mountain sports. He outfitted ski patrols and racing teams, friends
said. 

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