Speaking from a Seattle hospital, Anton Tselykh, 38, confirmed investigators’ theory that an anchor, called a piton, that he and his companions were using Saturday evening to rappel down the Early Winters Spires in the North Cascade Range had ripped out of the rock.
Tselykh was in satisfactory condition Wednesday morning at Harborview Medical Center, meaning he was not in the intensive care unit, Susan Gregg, media relations director for UW Medicine, said in an email.
One climber was rappelling off the piton — a metal spike pounded into rock cracks or ice that climbers anchor their ropes to — and the three others were tied into it and waiting to descend, said Cristina Woodworth, who leads the sheriff’s search and rescue team and spoke with Tselykh by phone.
Man, I really hope the survivor isn’t the one who placed the piton. Survivor’s guilt can be bad enough already.
The original article stated the piton looked old.
“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,” Woodworth said.
Thanks for the additional info.
I guess I hope that the survivor isn’t the one who placed the piton and even moreso hope that they’re not the one who supplied the piton.
The inference from the article I posted is that the piton had been placed there by a climber some time ago. It was not placed by this crew.
It’s still unclear if they had a backup anchor to the piton, which is a common practice for rock climbers, said Joshua Cole, a guide and co-owner of North Cascades Mountain Guides who has been climbing in the area for about 20 years.
Very curious if this is a case of missing safety practices, or of common safety practices not always being enough.
Rapping off a single piton is as insane as climbing 67km from a town without a PLB.
So many new terms to learn
Luckily, they had their emergency nickels.
Funny joke but on a serious note: you don’t need any money to call emergency services from any landline in North America. Including pay phones! If you ever find yourself in an emergency, a pay phone nearby is a great resource. All mobile phones within cell range can also call emergency services even without a wireless plan— it just needs to be in range of a compatible signal tower, no matter the provider.
