A rock climber who fell hundreds of feet descending a steep gully in Washington’s North Cascades mountains survived the fall that killed his three companions, hiked to his car in the dark and then drove to a pay phone to call for help, authorities said Tuesday.
The surviving climber, Anton Tselykh, 38, extricated himself from a tangle of ropes, helmets and other equipment after the fall Saturday evening. Despite suffering internal bleeding and head trauma, Tselykh eventually, over at least a dozen hours, made the trek to the pay phone, Okanogan County Undersheriff Dave Yarnell said.
The climbers who were killed were Vishnu Irigireddy, 48, Tim Nguyen, 63, Oleksander Martynenko, 36, Okanogan County Coroner Dave Rodriguez said.
Ok, so his surname, “Tselykh”, can be translated as [one of] “complete”, or “undamaged”, so it checks out
The thing that still doesn’t add up is how four climbers fell all at once. If a piton breaks, and multiple pitons/nuts/etc are pulled out in a big fall, then one or two people might fall, but that’s only if ALL of your protection rips out, which would be pretty rare, especially on granite.
But somehow, all four fell simultaneously, and with only one piton connected to their rope over an estimated 200 ft pitch.
That’s really odd, particularly with climbers who are a range of ages, 30-60. They probably aren’t inexperienced.
They were rappelling in a snowy couloir on a winter scramble route. A piton pulled and the shock load ripped what meager protection they had for an anchor. Its possible they didn’t have rock pro at all.
Had they summited NEWS theres a bolted rappel. The old descent route went the way they were going down. Its possible they tried to rap off ancient webbing and pitons from before the bolts were installed.
Sounds like a really bad decision - forced error due to some other reason to back out rapidly. What an awful tragedy.
About 120 meter for anybody wondering.
Holy shit, that really underlines it. So like a full city block. Down.
I think a “small skyscraper” would be an easier to understand height.
Oh my god people. If you’re going that remote, get yourself a Garmin InReach. It has an SOS button and satellite service.
There is a chance they had one but it was damaged in the fall. I mean 4 guys in full climbing gear falling hundreds of feet = not much survived intact.
Things like that are built to sustain much higher damage
The craziest part of this headline is that there was a payphone still in service.
…and that he had quarters with him
911 doesn’t require a quarter
I didn’t think of that! 🤣
Little did he know his lifetime of reading 2600 Magazine would be the key to saving his life. /s
I thought the same thing, must have found the last one in existence.
It’s right outside the Blockbuster.
In the neighborhood with affordable houses …
My exact thought reading the headline.
Wtf… There are still places that have payphones? 😮
I mean, even the ones in airports weren’t working last I tried.
My understanding is that phone companies in the US mostly just let them fail — they left them working as long as they were still functioning, but didn’t maintain them.
Maybe this was some special case, if it was out of cell service and a popular place or something.
If not, that guy has ludicrously good luck. He walked away from a hundreds-of-feet fall, and then when his life probably depended on it, managed to find a payphone and the payphone was functional.
EDIT:
https://potsandpansbyccg.com/2022/12/30/bringing-back-payphones/?amp
Payphones aren’t entirely gone, and this Google Map site supposedly shows the remaining payphones. If this site is right, there are still 307 working payphones in the country. Here in North Carolina, the only remaining payphone shown is at the Greensboro airport.
EDIT2: I bet that that’s not actually complete, though.
https://www.uslegacies.com/posts/the-decline-of-pay-phones-in-every-state
This has data from 2016, which is apparently the last time the US government actually tracked them. At that point, the state with the greatest decline from 2000 was Mississippi, with 188 functional phones remaining.
The one with the least decline was Hawaii, with 3,615 remaining.
EDIT3: The guy fell in Washington state, which as of 2016, had 1,730 remaining.
Every pay phone in Disney World is still working, yet not a single one is listed on that map.
Surprised they didn’t have a cellphone or cell-capable watch on them.
Parts of that region require sat phone.
The most recent models of cell phones can now send texts and SOS by satellite. I assume the SOS is like 911 and doesn’t need the special subscription.
But if you’re doing high-risk activities in a remote area, you should really have a spotter, a Garmin inreach, or both.
I know. But it’s a big question here in Washington whether or not we want to add cell towers on / near Mount Rainier because they do not have service.
Most people don’t keep up with the most recent model.
Haha my first thought.
Sounds like the lead climber sucked at anchoring.
They were descending because of an incoming storm, and the rescuers found an old piton attached to their rope.
It’s in the article.
I have zero compassion for people, who voluntarily put themselves at mortal risk as a hobby.
You stepped outside today; a de-orbitted space station toilet seat could have hit you in the head and killed you!
Literally everything has some level of “mortal risk”.
What is “mortal risk”? You can die due to driving to the Yarn Barn. Do you have zero compassion for knitters and crochet-ists?
Your feeling resonates with me, but I’m not sure it’s a defensible moral stance.
