Three climbers in Washington’s North Cascades died and a fourth was injured after their equipment malfunctioned.
On Sunday morning, the four were going down a steep gully at North Early Winters Spire near Washington State Route 20 about 16 miles west of Mazama when the accident occurred. The preliminary cause of their fall was an anchor failure while they were rappelling, the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook.
The anchor failure caused them to fall about 200 feet and tumble at least another 200 before stopping, OCSO Undersheriff David Yarnell told The New York Times.
“They were descending and had an anchor failure while repelling, and so that’s what caused all of them to fall together. They were clipped into some sort of equipment, and it was not able to hold their weight, and it failed,” OCSO Search and Rescue Coordinator Christina Woodworth told Seattle’s KIRO-FM.
While three of the climbers were found dead at the scene, ages 36, 47 and 63, the fourth was able to get himself up and out despite his injuries. None of the climbers involved have been publicly named.
A friend of the three decedents told Tacoma’s KCPQ that two were from Renton and another from Bellevue.
The surviving climber suffered a brain injury and internal bleeding but walked back to the trailhead and drove to a town to use a payphone to call 911, according to The Seattle Times.
“He didn’t realize he had as significant of internal injuries as he did,” Mr. Yarnell told the newspaper.
The bodies of the deceased were retrieved via helicopter.
