Climber who survived 400-foot fall that killed 3 others was unconscious before seeking pay phone

A rock climber in Washington who survived a fall of hundreds of feet that killed his three companions lay unconscious for hours before waking in the dark, trekking out with internal bleeding and driving to a pay phone to summon help, authorities said he told them on Wednesday.

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.

When the piton tore out of the rock, all four plunged roughly 200 feet (60 meters) past sheer mountainside, landing in a gully and tumbling another 200 feet (60 meters) before coming to a rest, said Woodworth.

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.

Tselykh lost consciousness for several hours, awaking in the dark in a tangle of ropes and gear, suffering from internal bleeding and head trauma, said Woodworth.

It took Tselykh eight hours to disentangle himself, work his way down the rough terrain of rock and snow — with help from a pick-like ice tool — to his car, where he drove for some 40 miles (67 kilometers) to the unincorporated community of Newhalem and called for help, authorities said.

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 who were killed were Vishnu Irigireddy, 48; Tim Nguyen, 63; and Oleksander Martynenko, 36, the county coroner said.

Olga Martynenko, Martynenko’s wife, said 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.

Fluke Corporation, a test equipment manufacturing company, shared in a statement Wednesday that Irigireddy was the manufacturer’s vice president of engineering.

“Vishnu was an extraordinary leader, and his loss is felt profoundly across our organization,” the statement read.