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.
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.