A rock climber has described how he miraculously survived a terrifying 400ft plunge that killed his three friends.
Anton Tselykh, 38, had been climbing in Washington’s North Cascades mountains when the anchor his group were tethered to gave way, sending them all plummeting down the rock face.
Speaking from a hospital bed in Seattle, Tselykh recounted how the men fell for about 200ft into a slanted gulch and then tumbled another 200ft before coming to a stop.
He described losing consciousness for several hours before waking up in the dark surrounded by a tangle of ropes and gear.
Despite sustaining serious injuries, he fought for eight hours to free himself before working his way down the rough terrain of rock and snow to his car.
He then drove to a nearby town to call for help, he told Cristina Woodworth, who leads the sheriff’s search and rescue team.
The four climbers were friends, some of whom had climbed together before and appeared fairly experienced, Woodworth said, adding that Tselykh was ‘obviously very much affected by this.’
The climbers killed were Vishnu Irigireddy, 48, Tim Nguyen, 63, and Oleksander Martynenko, 36, the Okanogan County coroner said.
A rock climber has described how he miraculously survived a terrifying 400ft plunge that killed his three friends. Pictured: The Okanogan County Search and Rescue team responds to a climbing accident in the North Cascades mountains in Washington
Anton Tselykh, 38, had been hiking in Washington’s North Cascades mountains when the anchor his group were tethered too gave way, sending them all plummeting down the rock face. Pictured: Search and rescue teams responding to the incident
Pictured: Oleksander Martynenko, one of the climbers killed in the accident
Olga Martynenko, Martynenko’s wife, said on Tuesday in a Facebook post that her husband, whom she referred to as Alex, also left behind their son.
She shared a link to a fundraiser to help ‘during the most devastating time of our lives.’
‘I still cannot believe that you are gone, my love,’ she said.
Falls like this leading to three deaths are extremely rare, said Woodworth.
Seven years ago, two climbers were killed in a fall on El Capitan at Yosemite National Park in California.
A three-person search and rescue team reached the site of the fall on Sunday.
The team used coordinates from a device the climbers had been carrying, which had been shared by a friend of the men.
Once they found the site, they called in a helicopter to remove the bodies one at a time because of the rough terrain, Woodworth said.
On Monday, responders poured over the recovered equipment trying to decipher what caused the fall, Woodworth added.
They found a piton – a small metal spike that is driven into rock cracks or ice and used as anchors 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 Okanogan County Coroner Dave Rodriguez, noting that pitons are typically stuck fast in the rock.
He added that when rappelling, all four men would not have be hanging from the one piton at the same time, but taking turns moving down the mountain.
Pitons are oftentimes left in walls. They can be there for years or even decades, and they may become less secure over time.
On Monday, responders poured over the recovered equipment trying to decipher what caused the fall
‘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.
Rock climbers secure themselves by ropes to anchors, such as pitons or other climbing equipment.
The ropes are intended to arrest their fall if they should slip, and typically climbers 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 about 20 years.
Generally, it would be unusual to rappel off a single piton, said Cole, adding that it is still unknown exactly what happened on the wall that night.
The spires are a popular climbing spot.
The route the climbers were taking was of moderate difficulty, and requires moving between ice, snow and rock, Cole added.
But the conditions, the amount of ice versus rock for example, can change rapidly with the weather, he said, even week to week or day to day, changing the route’s risks.
The Early Winters Spires, jagged peaks split by a cleft, is popular with climbers in the North Cascade Range, about 160 miles (257 kilometers) northeast of Seattle.
