Miracle as rock climber survives 400ft plunge thanks to incredible pluck
The rest of Anton Tselykh's party sadly all died following the plummet down a mountain in North Cascades National Park in the US but Anton's survival story is staggering
A rock climber who plunged around 400ft down a mountain somehow hiked to his car in the dark and then drove to a pay phone to call for help.
Anton Tselykh, 38, survived the ordeal against all odds as, despite suffering internal bleeding and head trauma, he staggered for more than 12 hours to the pay phone. He was desperate to call for help for his three companions; Vishnu Irigireddy, Tim Nguyen and Oleksander Martynenko, who also fell down the steep terrain in North Cascades National Park in Washington, United States. The three friends sadly died of their injuries.
Anton managed to extricate himself from a tangle of ropes, helmets and other equipment to leave on his rescue mission on Saturday. He is now in hospital receiving treatment for various injuries, including the head wound.
Cristina Woodworth, who led the search and rescue operation for Okanogan County Sheriff's Office, said her team is investigating the fall, and added Anton's miraculous story is rare.
The group of four were scaling the Early Winters Spires, jagged peaks split by a cleft popular with climbers in the North Cascade Range, about 160 miles (257 kilometers) northeast of Seattle.
The anchor used to secure the friends' ropes was torn from the rock while they were descending, Okanogan County Coroner Dave Rodriguez said. The anchor they were using, a metal spike called a piton, appeared to have been placed there by past climbers, the coroner added.
They plummeted for about 200 feet (60 metres) into a slanted gulch and then tumbled another 200 feet before coming to rest, the early stage of the investigation has discovered. Authorities believe the group had been ascending but turned around when they saw a storm approaching on Saturday.
A three-person search and rescue team reached the site of the fall on Sunday, Ms Woodworth said. 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, Ms Woodworth continued.
Responders have poured over the recovered equipment trying to decipher what caused the fall. They found a piton — a small metal spike which is driven into rock cracks or ice and used as anchors by climbers — that was still clipped into the climbers' ropes.
Mr Rodriguez, the coroner, continued: "There's no other reason it would be hooked onto the rope unless it pulled out of the rock." He noted pitons are typically stuck fast in the rock. Mr Rodriguez 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. The investigation in Washington continues
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Sky News
15-05-2025
- Sky News
Three climbers dead after 200ft fall - while one 'miraculously' survives
Three climbers have died after they fell hundreds of feet on to jagged rock, while the survival of one man in the group is being called "miraculous". Vishnu Irigireddy, 48, Tim Nguyen, 63, Oleksander Martynenko, 36, died while climbing down a steep gully on the 7,800ft Early Winters Spire peaks in Washington state on Sunday. Their fall was likely caused by a "weathered" piton, which is a metal spike serving as an anchor used to slow the descent down a steep mountainside, tearing from the rock, the Okanogan County Sheriff's Office said. The fourth climber, Anton Tselykh, 38, from Seattle, miraculously survived, despite also plummeting 200ft on to jagged rock and tumbling another 200ft before coming to rest in a tangle of ropes and climbing equipment. He suffered internal bleeding and severe head trauma, which caused him to pass out until around 10pm, hours after the estimated time of the fall, police said. He managed to untangle himself before "crawling and feeling around in nearly pitch darkness" to find his way back to his car, Okanogan County Undersheriff David Yarnell told Sky News' US partner NBC News. Mr Tselykh drove west over the mountain range and collided with a guardrail on the way, falling unconscious, before finally reaching a pay phone to call for help. His survival "is miraculous to say the least," Mr Yarnell said. Mr Tselykh is being treated in a Seattle hospital and is in "satisfactory condition", according to a hospital spokesperson. The bodies of the three climbers have since been recovered, locating them via a GPS device in their kit. Police said the three men had suffered massive leg and cranial traumas. Authorities believe the group had been ascending the north Early Winters Spire peak when they decided to reverse course due to an approaching storm. The Early Winters Spires in the Northern Cascades consist of two 7,800ft peaks, which are popular with climbers. The route the group was taking was of moderate difficulty and sees climbers moving between ice, snow and rock, according to a local guide, who cautioned that conditions can change rapidly depending on the weather.
The Independent
15-05-2025
- The Independent
Climber describes how he narrowly survived 400-foot fall that killed 3 others
A Washington rock climber survived a devastating fall that claimed the lives of his three companions, authorities reported. Anton Tselykh, 38, recounted the harrowing experience from his Seattle hospital bed, confirming investigators' suspicions about the cause of the tragedy. The group was rappelling down the Early Winters Spires in the North Cascade Range when a crucial anchor, known as a piton, failed. One climber was actively rappelling off the metal spike, driven into the rock face, when it gave way. The other three climbers, including Tselykh, were tethered to the same anchor, awaiting their descent. The piton's failure sent all four plummeting an estimated 400 feet. Tselykh lay unconscious for hours following the fall. Upon regaining consciousness in the darkness, he managed to hike out and drive to a pay phone to call for help. This account, relayed by Tselykh to Snohomish County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue coordinator Cristina Woodworth, corroborates the investigators' initial assessment of the accident. Tselykh lost consciousness after the fall for several hours before awaking in the dark in a tangle of ropes and gear. Woodsworth said he had internal bleeding and head trauma. 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, drive to a nearby town and call for help, Woodworth 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 Okanogan 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.
The Independent
14-05-2025
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