Mountain rescue personnel prepare to travel up Mount Hood in the driving snow Sunday at Timberline Lodge near Government Camp, Ore., to retrieve stranded climbers. Three climbers fell over a mountain ledge but were alive and had been located. They are awaiting rescue if conditions permit today.

Government Camp, Ore. ? Three climbers who fell from a ledge on snowy Mount Hood on Sunday got into their sleeping bags for warmth and awaited rescue, officials said.

Rescuers were trying to rappel 150 feet to reach the climbers, but were caught in whiteout conditions. Officials were in sporadic cell phone contact with the three, and believed they were in good condition.

“They’re wet, shivering and cold,” said Jim Strovink, a spokesman for the Clackamas County Sheriff’s office.

All three – a man and two women – were able to walk, and rescuers had earlier suggested they cautiously try to work their way down the mountain as rescue teams worked their way up toward them.

At least one of the three had a mountain locator unit, which emits signals used to find missing or stranded climbers. Rescuers were using the signals to keep track of the trio’s position on the mountain.

“They’re very cold,” said Russell Gubele, who was coordinating communications for the rescue operation. “It’s snowing heavy. Conditions are awful.”

Sgt. Sean Collinson, a spokesman for the Clackamas County Sheriff’s office, said the two women appeared to have suffered some bumps and bruises and their male companion is in good condition. He said all three “were in fairly good spirits when we talked to them on the phone.”

“Hopefully we’ll be able to home right in on their exact location,” Strovink said Sunday. “I feel confident this skilled team will arrive there shortly.”

The drama on Oregon’s highest mountain began shortly before noon, when someone in an eight-person climbing party called emergency dispatchers to say three of the climbers had fallen off a cliff.

The climbing mishap occurred at about the 8,300-foot level on the mountain, which is about 60 miles east of Portland.

Battling snow and winds that exceeded 70 mph, a team of rescue mountaineers scrambled up the mountain to search. The other members of the party were told to dig a snow cave and wait for help.

Authorities said the climbers’ electronic locator device helped rescuers find them. One of the devices was activated after the fall, authorities said.

The three climbers who fell were located near the five others, authorities said. The five were taken down to Timberline Lodge, a ski resort at the 6,000-foot level of Mount Hood, and all were reported in good condition, the sheriff’s office said in an e-mail.

The mountain can be treacherous, particularly in the winter. In December, search teams scoured Mount Hood for days in the hopes of finding a group of missing climbers alive. The bodies of Brian Hall, of Dallas, and Jerry “Nikko” Cooke, of New York, have not been found. Another climber in their group, Kelly James, of Dallas, died of hypothermia.

In the past 25 years, more than 35 climbers have died on the 11,239-foot mountain, one of the most frequently climbed mountains in the world.