Is There a McDonalds on Mt. Hood?

Another group of noobs got rescued off Mt. Hood recently, and we scanned the news looking for what people had to say on the subject. We follow climbing-related news not because we're climbers per se (in fact Seattlest is really nothing of the sort), but to keep tabs on what the rest of the world thinks about "extreme" sports. And sadly we've found that digging up people saying stupid things on the topic of high-altitude climbing is about as easy as shooting some of Dick Cheney's friends in the face.

So we were pleased to find that a recent Seattle Times article quoted an actual Mt. Hood rescuer, who said the men had most of the right equipment, but weren't necessarily experienced enough to use it properly. According to Steve Rollings, they did not "appreciate the strength of storms on Mt. Hood." This is all fine and good, but then the rescuer goes on to say: uh-uh, you don't climb in storms without...experience climbing in storms.

Rollins said the men told rescuers that they had no experience climbing Mount Hood during a storm. Rollins said that's a no-no: "You don't climb in a storm without prior experience."

You know, like when you go to get your first job and they want experience and you say but how do I get experience until I have my first job and that's the only way McDonalds seems capable of staffing their "restaurants" at all these days?

We'll give the rescuer the benefit of the doubt on this one, and presume that he either was misquoted, or he meant to suggest that they should have at least climbed with one other person who has experience in near or total whiteout conditions. Which would be all five of those climbers, as of now. Or maybe they could take a class. Oooh, this one sounds nice.