A rock climber who fell hundreds of feet while descending a steep gully in Washington’s North Cascades mountains survived the fall that killed his three teammates, trekked to his car in the dark, and then drove to a pay phone to ring for assistance, authorities said Tuesday.
Anton Tselykh, 38, managed to free himself from a tangle of ropes, helmets, and other equipment following the fall Saturday evening. Despite suffering from internal bleeding and brain injuries, Tselykh eventually made it to the pay phone after at least a dozen hours, according to Okanogan County Undersheriff Dave Yarnell.
The climbers killed were Vishnu Irigireddy, 48, Tim Nguyen, 63, and Oleksander Martynenko, 36, according to Okanogan County Coroner Dave Rodriguez.
According to Rodriguez, authorities have yet to question the survivor, who is being treated in a Seattle hospital, thus much about the fall and Tselykh’s journey remains unknown.
Falls resulting in three deaths are highly rare, according to Cristina Woodworth, who oversees the sheriff’s search and rescue team. Seven years ago, two climbers were murdered in a fall on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, California.
The four climbers were scaling the Early Winters Spires, rugged peaks separated by a chasm in the North Cascade Range, about 160 miles (257 kilometers) northeast of Seattle. Tselykh was hospitalized in Seattle.
The group of four met their demise that night when the anchor used to tie their ropes was severed from the rock while they were descending, Rodriguez added. The anchor they were using, a metal spike called a piton, looked to have been installed there by previous climbers, he explained.
They fell about 200 feet (60 meters) into a sloped gulch and tumbled another 200 feet before coming to rest, according to Yarnell. Authorities suspect the party was ascending but turned back when they noticed a storm approaching.
Woodworth reported that a three-person search and rescue team arrived at the scene of the fall on Sunday. The team used coordinates from a device carried by the climbers and shared by one of the men’s friends.
Because of the rugged terrain, they brought in a chopper to remove the bodies one at a time after discovering the location, according to Woodworth.
On Monday, responders sifted through the retrieved equipment, attempting to determine what caused the collapse, Woodworth said. They discovered a piton—a small metal spike pushed into rock crevices or ice and used as an anchor by climbers—that was still clipped into the climbers’ ropes.
“There’s no other reason it would be hooked onto the rope unless it pulled out of the rock,” said Rodriguez, the coroner, noting that pitons are generally lodged deep in the rock. Rodriguez explained that when rappelling, all four guys would not be hanging from the same piton at the same time, but would take turns moving down the mountain.
Pitons are often left in walls. They can remain for years, if not decades, and may become less secure as time passes.
“It looked old and weathered, and the rest of their equipment looked newer, so we are making the assumption that it was an old piton,” he said.
Rock climbers use ropes to attach themselves to anchors such as pitons or other climbing equipment. The ropes are designed to halt their fall if they slip, and climbers usually use backup anchors, according to Joshua Cole, a guide and co-owner of North Cascades Mountain Guides who has been climbing in the area for roughly 20 years.
In general, rappelling off a single piton is unusual, according to Cole, who adds that the specific events on the wall that night are still unknown.
“We eventually, if possible, would like to get more information from surviving party,” according to Woodworth.
The spires are a popular climbing location. Cole described the climbers’ route as quite tough, requiring them to navigate ice, snow, and rock.
However, he stated that the conditions, such as the proportion of ice vs rock, might change quickly with the weather, even week to week or day to day, affecting the route’s dangers.
Reference: Rock climber survives 400-foot fall that killed 3 in North Cascades