A rock climber who fell on hundreds of legs, descending a steep gully in the mountains of a northern cascade of Washington, survived the fall, which killed his three satellites, hiking to his car in the dark, and then headed for a payment phone to call for help, authorities said on Tuesday.
The surviving climber Anton I aimed, 38 years old, escaped from a weeds of ropes, helmets and other equipment after the fall on Saturday night. Although it suffered internal bleeding and head injury, I eventually aimed, at least ten hours, made the campaign to the phone for payment, said Dave Yarnell’s underground Dave Yarnell.
The climbers killed were Vishnu Irigiddi, 48, Tim Nguyen, 63, said Alexander Martinenko, 36 -year -old, Coronor of Davogan Dave Rodriguez County.
Authorities have not yet been able to interview the survivor, who is in a hospital in Seattle, said Rodriguez, so it is not yet known for the fall and the trip of the whole.
Falls like this, leading to three deaths, are extremely rare, said Christina Woodworth, who runs the Sheriff’s search and rescue team. Seven years ago, two climbers were killed in the fall of El Captain at Yosemite National Park in California.
A group of four scaled the early winters Spiers, serrated peaks separated by a cleft, which is popular in climbers in the northern cascade chain, about 160 miles (257 kilometers) northeast of Saattle. I was aimed at hospitalized in Seattle.
The group of four met with a disaster that evening when the anchor used to secure their ropes was detached from the rock while they descended, said Rodriguez. The anchor they used, a metal spike called Piton, seems to have been placed there by past climbers, he said.
They fell about 200 feet (60 meters) in a sloping bay and then descended another 200 feet before they rest, Yarnell said. Authorities believe the group was upcoming, but turned when they saw a storm approach.
A three -person search and rescue team reached the place of the fall on Sunday, Wedworth said. The team uses coordinates from a device that the climbers wore, which were shared by a friend of men.
After finding the site, they called a helicopter to remove the bodies one by one because of the rough terrain, Woodworth said.
On Monday, respondents poured the restored equipment, trying to decipher what caused the fall, Woodworth said. They found Piton, the mainly a small metal jump that is driven into rock cracks or ice and used as climbers – which was still harvested in the ropes of the climbers.
“There is no other reason that it will be hung on the rope unless it gets out of the rock,” says Rodriguez, the coroner, noting that the pythons are usually glued quickly to the rock. Rodriguez added that when rapilling, all four men would not be hanging from one python at the same time, but they rotate the mountain.
The pythons are often left in the walls. They can be there for years or even decades, and over time they can become less secure.
“It looked old and tired, and the rest of their equipment looked more new, so we assume that it was an old python,” Woodworth said.
Rock climbers are provided with ropes to anchors, such as pythons or other climbing equipment. The Ropes are intended to arrest their fall if they have to slide, and usually the climbers use spare anchors, said Joshua Cole, a leader and co -owner of mountain guides in a northern cascade, which has been climbing in the area for about 20 years.
In general, it would be unusual to give up a python, Cole said, adding that it was not yet known exactly what had happened on the wall that night.
“After all, if possible, we would like to get more information from the surviving party,” Wedworth said.
Spiers are a popular climbing spot. The route that the climbers took, Cole said, had a moderate difficulty and required to move between ice, snow and rock.
But the conditions, the amount of ice against the rock, for example, can change quickly over time, he said, even week by week or day by day, changing the risks of the route.
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Bedayn reported from Denver.