In a harrowing tale of survival and tragedy, a rock climber who plunged hundreds of feet down a gully in Washington’s rugged North Cascades mountains lived to tell the story—after hiking alone through the night to find help, despite internal injuries and head trauma.
The climber, identified as 38-year-old Anton Tselykh, was part of a four-person team that met with disaster on Saturday evening while descending the Early Winters Spires, a popular yet perilous climbing route about 160 miles northeast of Seattle. His three companions — Vishnu Irigireddy, 48, Tim Nguyen, 63, and Oleksander Martynenko, 36 — were killed in the fall.
According to Okanogan County authorities, the group had been descending after turning back due to an approaching storm when tragedy struck. The anchor holding their ropes — a weathered piton left by previous climbers — tore free from the rock face, sending all four tumbling nearly 400 feet down a steep, slanted gulch.
Despite suffering significant injuries, Tselykh managed to free himself from a tangle of climbing gear and, over at least 12 grueling hours, hiked back to his car in the dark. He then drove to a nearby pay phone to call for help, Okanogan County Undersheriff Dave Yarnell confirmed on Tuesday.
Search and rescue teams, guided by GPS coordinates from a device the group had carried, reached the remote site on Sunday. Due to the terrain, recovery crews had to call in a helicopter to remove the bodies one by one.
Investigators reviewing the recovered gear confirmed that a single piton was still clipped into the group’s ropes — a sign that it likely failed during the descent. Pitons are metal spikes climbers drive into rock or ice to secure ropes, but they can degrade over time if left in place. Authorities believe the piton may have been decades old and no longer structurally sound.
“It looked old and weathered, and the rest of their equipment looked newer,” said Cristina Woodworth, head of the Okanogan County Sheriff’s search and rescue team. “We are making the assumption that it was an old piton.”
Joshua Cole, a veteran guide with North Cascades Mountain Guides, said while the route is of moderate difficulty, conditions can shift rapidly in the mountains, especially between ice and rock. “Generally, it would be unusual to rappel off a single piton,” Cole noted, adding that further clarity on the incident would depend on Tselykh’s account.
Tselykh remains hospitalized in Seattle, and authorities have not yet been able to interview him due to his injuries.
Incidents of this magnitude are rare. The last similar tragedy in the U.S. occurred seven years ago, when two climbers died in a fall on Yosemite’s El Capitan. The Early Winters Spires, though beloved by climbers, now stands as a somber reminder of the risks that come with exploring nature’s vertical extremes.
