Sole survivor of a 400-foot rock climbing fall told 911 dispatcher he could ‘hardly breathe’

A rock climber who survived a long fall that killed his three companions hiked back to his car despite serious injuries and told a 911 dispatcher that he could “hardly breathe,” according to a recording obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

Anton Tselykh and his climbing partners were descending a gully between towering granite spires in Washington’s North Cascades mountains on Saturday evening when an anchor securing their ropes tore out the rock. All four plummeted hundreds of feet.

Tselykh lost consciousness and awoke several hours later in a tangle of ropes. He managed to trek to his car over snowy and rocky terrain and drive about 40 miles (64 kilometers) to the unincorporated community of Newhalem, where he called 911 early Sunday.

He apologized to the dispatcher for his voice and said he could barely breathe. He reported that three of his companions had been killed in the fall, but he could only find two of their bodies in the dark.

“The whole team went down,” Tselykh said. “We basically slid and rolled down, like all of us, to the bottom of the couloir and a little bit lower.” A couloir is a sheer gully that runs down a mountain.

Despite suffering brain trauma and other serious internal injuries, he told the dispatcher that he didn’t think he needed immediate medical help.

“My face is very well beaten, hands and my ribs, I can hardly breathe,” said Teslykh. “But I feel OK, I mean, I don’t need emergency.”

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.