The Okanogan County Search and Rescue team responds to a climbing accident in the North Cascades mountains in Washington on Sunday, May 11, 2025. (Okanogan County Sheriff's Office via AP)
The Okanogan County Search and Rescue team responds to a climbing accident in the North Cascades mountains in Washington on Sunday, May 11, 2025. (Okanogan County Sheriff's Office via AP)
Four rock climbers fell several hundred feet while descending granite spires in Washington, leaving only one survivor who hiked out and told a 911 dispatcher that his companions were dead and he could “hardly breathe,” according to a recording obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
Anton Tselykh, 38, had plummeted an estimated 400 feet (122meters) Saturday evening, suffering internal injuries and head trauma. By Sunday morning, more than a dozen hours later, he was calling 911 from a payphone in a community some 40 miles (67 kilometers) away.
“The whole team went down,” Tselykh told the dispatcher. “My face is very well beaten, hands and my ribs, I can hardly breathe.”
Responders who eventually met Tselykh reported bruises on his head and fluid leaking from his ears, according to radio logs.
Here’s what we know so far about the accident and Tselykh’s overnight escape.
What caused the climbers’ fall?
It was Saturday afternoon and lightly snowing on the Early Winters Spires when the four climbers, working their way up a steep gully, decided to turn around for a descent that would claim three of their lives.
On their way down, they attached their ropes to a piton — a metal spike pounded into rock cracks or ice and used to secure ropes — that had been placed by a past climber. As one of the men began rappelling off the piton, it ripped out of the mountain, sending all four plummeting past ice and snow and rock.
“We basically slid and rolled down, like all of us, to the bottom of the couloir and a little bit lower," Tselykh told the 911 dispatcher. A couloir is a sheer gully that runs down a mountain.
After the fall, Tselykh lost consciousness.
Pitons are oftentimes left in walls by climbers and can stay there for years or even decades, becoming less secure over time. Typically, it's common practice among climbers to set up a backup anchor, said Joshua Cole, a guide and co-owner of North Cascades Mountain Guides.
But it's still unclear whether the four had a backup.
How did the surviving climber escape?
It’s unknown why Tselykh survived the fall when the others didn’t, but he awoke several hours later in a tangle of ropes. It was dark outside, and he could only find two of his companions' bodies in the dark, he told the 911 dispatcher, saying, “I was lucky to survive."
Tselykh extricated himself from the ropes, equipment and debris, and trekked over rock and snow — with help from a pick-like ice tool — down the mountain. “There is no trail, basically wild,” Tselykh described to dispatch. “I was able to descend very slow."
Arriving at his car, Tselykh drove some 40 miles (67 kilometers) and, at one point, ran into a guardrail, according to police records. Arriving in the unincorporated community of Newhalem, Tselykh called 911 early Sunday.
He apologized to the dispatcher for his voice and said he could barely breathe. Despite suffering brain trauma and other serious internal injuries, he told the dispatcher that he didn’t think he needed immediate medical help. “I feel OK, I mean, I don’t need emergency,” he said.
The dispatcher asked him to stay were he was so that medics could check him out and authorities could take his report. He was later hospitalized.
By Wednesday morning, he was in satisfactory condition at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center, meaning he was not in the intensive care unit, Susan Gregg, a spokeswoman for UW Medicine, said in an email.
Who were the climbers and how were their bodies recovered?
A three-person search and rescue team responded following Tselykh’s call, using coordinates from a GPS device the climbers had been carrying, said Cristina Woodworth, who heads the team.
The three deceased climbers were identified as Vishnu Irigireddy, 48; Tim Nguyen, 63; and Oleksander Martynenko, 36. The rough terrain required a helicopter to remove their bodies, Woodworth said.
The AP made attempts to reach several of their family members, but has not heard back.
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.”
Irigireddy was a vice president of engineering at the Fluke Corporation, a test equipment manufacturing company, which released a statement Wednesday.
“Vishnu was an extraordinary leader, and his loss is felt profoundly across our organization,” the statement read.
Martynenko’s wife, Olga, 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," the post said.
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Bedayn is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
