HOOD RIVER, Ore. (AP) - A body found in a snow cave on Mount Hood by searchers looking for three missing climbers is the same climber who placed a distress call to relatives a little more than a week ago, a person close to the family and a military official said Monday.
     
Jessica Nunez, who is close to the family of missing climber Kelly James and has been acting as a spokeswoman, said the body is that of Kelly James. She said the information comes from James' family, and that she had talked to them.
     
A military official involved in the search also confirmed the body is that of James, 48, of Dallas. The official asked not to be identified.
     
James' mother, Lou Ann Cameron, told the AP she did not want to comment. Reached on her cell phone, she referred queries to the Hood River County Sheriff's Office. The sheriff's office said they could not yet comment on the identify of the body.
     
A Chinook helicopter was preparing to fly to the snow cave, about 300 feet below Mount Hood's 11,239-foot summit, to recover the body, said Pete Hughes, a spokeman with the Hood River County Sheriff's Office. 
     
He said other helicopters - two Blackhawks - were getting ready to fly to the mountain to search for the two climbers still missing: Brian Hall, 37, also of Dallas, and Jerry "Nikko" Cooke, 36, of New York City.
     
A team of climbers who stayed overnight at a lodge about half way up the mountain will also participate in the search, he said.
     
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)