Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts on Wednesday abruptly reversed course and announced that he would allow Portland Mountain Rescue to continue to respond to search-and-rescue missions on Mount Hood after all.

Roberts announced his change of heart after meeting with representatives of the elite rescue unit for two hours Wednesday morning.

The sheriff has for months laid the groundwork to consolidate search-and-rescue into a single unit managed by his office. The controversial plan effectively put Portland Mountain Rescue and three other longstanding search-and-rescue groups out of commission.

Roberts came under fire for the decision to do away with relying in outside groups. County leaders expressed bewilderment over the sheriff’s reasoning and mountaineers said they have come to count on the training and skill of Portland Mountain Rescue in particular. The group’s rescue mountaineers are experienced in complex rescue missions under challenging conditions on the iconic peak.

Under the new agreement, Portland Mountain Rescue will become a unit of the Sheriff’s Office search-and-rescue team. The decision is limited to the mountain rescue group.

Three other groups, Pacific Northwest Search and Rescue, Mountain Wave Search and Rescue and North Oregon Regional Search and Rescue, weren’t mentioned in the sheriff’s statement. Those units specialize in ground searches, emergency communications and searches with trained dogs.

Russ Gubele, president of Mountain Wave, said he applauds the latest development. He said the mountain rescue unit’s missions tend to be high-profile but that most search-and-rescue calls don’t involve the mountain.

He said he hopes to meet with Roberts and other search-and-rescue groups “to discuss an agreement on how to best respond to SAR calls without disbanding our highly-effective, close-knit teams.”

Diana Worthen, president of Pacific Northwest Search and Rescue, said her group also plans to meet with Roberts. She said Wednesday’s announcement is encouraging.

“We are hopeful that it means good things for all of search and rescue,” she said.

Portland Mountain Rescue representatives argued that their unique skills and experience made them an invaluable asset in search-and-rescue missions on Mount Hood, one of the world’s busiest peaks. They balked at leaving behind their own organization and joining a new Sheriff’s Office unit that lacked the camaraderie and trust they’ve established from years of working together on the mountain.

Roberts announced that the Sheriff’s Office and Portland Mountain Rescue had “arrived at a mutual agreement” that would allow the group to continue to respond to missions. In a statement, Roberts said details of the arrangement are still being worked out.

Roberts didn’t address why he changed his mind, saying only that rescues on Mount Hood demand “a highly specialized team like Portland Mountain Rescue.”

Mark Morford, a board member of Portland Mountain Rescue and a longtime rescue mountaineer, said the agreement preserves “attributes of Portland Mountain Rescue we believe are critical to successful mountain rescue.”

Roberts previously said his idea for a single unit controlled by his office came after months of consideration and research. He said he was motivated to reorganize in light of litigation over a climber’s death in 2017.

John Thornton Jenkins, 32, of Mukilteo, Washington, died after falling hundreds of feet down Mount Hood. His parents blamed the Sheriff’s Office and Clackamas County 911 for missteps that they said contributed to a more than four-hour wait before their son was rescued. Moments before the helicopter lowered a cable to lift a basket and hoist him aboard, Jenkins stopped breathing and died.

The county disputed that it failed to launch a prompt rescue and said rescuers at the scene told authorities that they thought they could get Jenkins out.

The county ultimately settled the lawsuit for $25,000. The settlement required the Sheriff’s Office to make a $5,000 donation to Portland Mountain Rescue. A volunteer with the unit was with Jenkins as he was loaded into the helicopter.

The agreement with Jenkins’ family also required the Sheriff’s Office to do more training and develop better communication procedures for the county’s emergency responders.

-- Noelle Crombie; ncrombie@oregonian.com; 503-276-7184; @noellecrombie

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