Rock Climbing Fall Kills Three, Survivor Reaches Help in Washington Cascades

A rock climbing accident in Washington's North Cascades mountains resulted in three climbers' deaths and one survivor, Anton Tselykh, who endured a harrowing 400-foot fall. The group was descending a steep gully near the Early Winters Spires when an old, weathered piton anchor securing their ropes detached from the rock, causing the fall. Tselykh, despite suffering internal bleeding and head trauma, managed to extricate himself from the tangled equipment, hike to his car in the dark, and drive to a pay phone to call for help over the course of about 12 hours. The deceased climbers were identified as Vishnu Irigireddy, 48, Tim Nguyen, 63, and Oleksander Martynenko, 36. A search and rescue team used coordinates from a device the climbers carried to locate the fall site and recovered the bodies by helicopter due to rough terrain. Authorities continue to investigate the incident and the equipment failure that led to the tragedy.