Mark Cartier was No. 102.

Since record keeping began in 1883, Mount Hood had taken the lives of 101 previous climbers. In the early morning hours of June 14, Cartier, 56, of Portland, joined that terrible list.

“My husband was a highly respected and accomplished climber,” Cartier’s wife Deb Weekley said in a prepared statement. “He always exemplified the description of preparedness
and calculated risk. I can also say he was well-respected by the very people

who helped recover him ... Mark used Mount Hood as his special playground.”
According to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office, a caller reported that
Cartier had fallen 1,000 feet on a standard climbing route from near the
10,000 foot level and landed on the west side of the Hogsback near Crater
Rock.

Other climbers that witnessed the fall made their way to Cartier and
attempted to render assistance.

The sheriff’s office, assisted by the AMR Reach and Treat team, located the
fallen climber and reported the climber was deceased. The recovery team
performed a litter transport of the body to meet a snowcat at the top of the
Palmer ski lift to bring the body down the mountain.

Cartier had registered at Timberline Lodge for a solo, overnight ascent. There
were 14 other registered climbers on that day, and according to The
Oregonian, there were 100 climbers believed to be on the mountain when the
fall occurred. The snow was firm and visibility was excellent.

“Mark left this morning from Timberline Lodge after signing into the Mountain
Climbers Registry,” Weekley wrote. “He climbed the mountain as he has done
hundreds of times before. The only thing different this time was that he didn’t
call me saying he had made it down. Hearing of the accident today, I safely
assumed he had stopped to assist someone in need. That was the type of
climber Mark has always been.”

Cartier started climbing when he was 16 and reached the summit of
mountains in Oregon, California, Alaska, Europe and the Himalayas.

Cartier was the second climber to perish on Mount Hood this year. On Feb. 7,
Jared Townsley, 32, of Tigard, fell into White River Canyon during a solo
climb.