Mount Hood, Ore. ? Rescue teams equipped with ice axes, ropes and other high-altitude gear were once again frustrated Tuesday in their efforts to find three climbers on Oregon’s highest mountain. After battling high winds and blowing snow, search teams broke for the day without success.

An Oregon National Guard helicopter was able to survey the lower half of the mountain, but bad weather kept the crew from getting much higher than the 6,000-foot level on the 11,239-foot peak. Crews began coming off the mountain in the afternoon to conclude their search by dark.

The last anyone heard from the climbers was on Sunday, when one, 48-year-old Kelly James, of Dallas, used his cell phone from a snow cave to say the group was in trouble. He said his two companions – Brian Hall, 37, also of Dallas, and Jerry “Nikko” Cooke, 36, of New York City – had gone for help.